The Baker Dozen Meets a Baker's Dozen
by Miggy not Fax
Summary: Full summary inside.The Bakers dozen meets a baker's dozen when a family with thirteen children moves in across the street and chaos is insured.The kids hit it off immediately with a great friendship and a chance of romance but what will the kids do when-
1. Meet the Swords

**This is my first Cheaper by the Dozen fanfic so if you see anything wrong just point it out in a review and I'll fix it.**

**Disclaimer, I do not own the Bakers or Midland. I do own Wednesday and the rest of the Swords so I would appreciate it if you did not steal my ideas.**

**The Bakers dozen meets a baker's dozen when a family with thirteen children moves in across the street and chaos is insured. The kids hit it off immediately with a great friendship and a chance of romance but what will the kids do when they learn that their parents****have hated each other since grade school?**

**Chapter 1**

Wednesday Swords sat crammed in between her older brother, Jackson who had and encyclopedia open on his lap with the corners digging into Wednesday's leg, and her younger sister Suzy who was sneezing every few seconds.

It was an unpleasant SIX HOURS for Wednesday who had used up all the patience she had earned in seven years and was considering murder at the end. The twelve children ran out of the van once they arrived at their new house in Midland.

The Swords oldest child, Tyler who no longer lived with them but had promised to help the family unpack stood waiting on the front porch. Greetings were exchanged before backpacks, suitcases, and duffel bags were snatched up and the kids were wrestling over rooms.

Once Wednesday managed to get a room she unpacked, used the restroom, and went outside. She hit the ground running, needing to burn off the energy she had built up over the time spent in the car.

She ran up the street and started walking back. She saw that there was a house about the same size as her families with bikes, skates, and sports equipment scattered across the yard. It was either a large family or VERY messy and spoiled kids.

Suddenly something knocked her to the ground. The knees of her pants tore as she skidded across the ground and her knees were just as shredded as her pants. Wednesday bit her lip to keep from crying out.

"I'm so sorry!" a boy's voice said. "My brother pushed me and my skates kept rolling."

Wednesday looked up to see a blond haired boy about her age on roller skates wearing hockey gear. An older boy skated over.

"It's OK," Wednesday said. She wiped furiously at her eyes to wipe away the tears that were building there.

"Do you want to come over to our house? Our mom can help clean up your knees," the older boy offered.

"Um… Sure," Wednesday said. She knew that this would slow the process of unpacking at her house which would get on her parents' nerves a lot.

The two boys lead her to the large house that she had seen before with equipment scattered across the yard.

"Mom this is… uh…" the blond haired boy started to say but then remembered he hadn't asked her name.

"Wednesday," she said.

"Jake pushed me while I was skating and I knocked her down," the younger boy explained.

"Nice to meet you Wednesday, I'm Kate Baker. I'm guessing you've meet Mike and Jake," the woman said. Wednesday mentally listed the names. Jake was the older, Mike was her age, and Baker was their last name.

Mrs. Baker cleaned and bandaged her knees and found a pair of Mike's jeans for her to wear which were only slightly baggy. Once Wednesday was patched up the three went back outside. They kicked off their shoes and started jumping on the trampoline.

"So Wednesday, you got any brothers and sisters?" Mike asked after a little while.

"Yeah, I'm the third youngest of thirteen. What about you?" she said, ready for them to be surprised.

"Other than us there're ten other Bakers so you beat us by one," Jake said. Wednesday smiled, glad that her family wasn't the only big family on the street.

"Well actually there's 14 of us but, Tyler doesn't really count because he doesn't live with us and he's a grown-up. He's twenty three," Wednesday said after thinking a little.

"Nora doesn't live with us. She's got an apartment but sometimes she visits," Mike said.

Several hours later Wednesday heard one of her older sisters, Hannah, yelling for her to come home. The dark haired girl jumped off the trampoline and jammed her feet into her sneakers.

"I'll see you around," she said to the two boys.

"Yeah, you can come over some time if you want to," Mike offered.

Wednesday smiled. "That'd be great."

**DON'T MIND ME FOLKS. I'M JUST A LINE BREAK. :)**

"Where were you Wednesday?" Mrs. Sword asked her daughter as the two set the table for dinner.

"I meet the neighbors. Jake pushed Mike while he was on skates and Mike couldn't stop and knocked me down so they took me to their house and their mom took care of my scratches and then we just played," she said in full awareness that her mom wasn't listening to half of what she said.

"Oh. That's nice," the woman said, while trying to stop the twins, Suzy and Anna, from fighting over whose hair brush was whose.

At nine o'clock Wednesday went into her bedroom and put on a tee shirt and sleep shorts for P.J.s. She took the gauze pads off her knees and examined the cuts. They were no longer bleeding but still stung a lot.

"What happened to your knees," one of her older brothers, Billy asked.

"One of the neighbors shoved the other one and he was on skates so he couldn't stop and accidently knocked me down," she said.

Billy mentally laughed at the way Wednesday spoke. She her voice was still childish but she had a slightly larger than normal vocabulary which made her sound a little bit funny.

"I didn't see you come home," he said.

"That's because I didn't. They're mom cleaned me up and let me borrow a pair of jeans from Mike and then I played over there the rest of the time," Wednesday explained.

Billy nodded. "Be careful." Billy was sixteen and very protective over all of his siblings, even Tyler and Jessie who were older than him.

"Aren't I always?" Wednesday said. Billy gave her a look that said, 'Do you really want me to answer that?'

The seven year old laughed before curling under the covers on her bed. "Goodnight Billy."

"Night Wednesday," he said. Billy turned off the lights and left the door cracked open.

**Love it? Hate it? Just give me a review.**

**-Miggy not Fax **


	2. Ya Got to Love Wednesday

**Hey, I'm back. I got two reviews. (I feel so loved.) Thanks for both of them. **

**Chapter 2**

Charlie Baker glanced out of his window. Several of the Swords were outside. He could see the girl that Jake and Mike had pointed out as Wednesday on the ground wrestling with an older brother.

Giving his attempt at completing his homework and deciding to do it tomorrow morning he jammed his feet into his worn out pair of tennis shoes and headed outside. He heard and attempt to stop Wednesday and the boy's fighting and saw a girl his age doing her best to separate the two.

"Hey Wednesday," Charlie called after a minute. "Why don't you go see what Mike and Jake are up to?"

Wednesday smiled and ran off. The other boy went inside to do… whatever it is he does.

"Thanks," the girl said. "Wednesday and Josh are competitive. I can never get them to stop."

"I learned a few tricks from dealing with Sarah and Jake when they were younger," Charlie said casually. "I'm Charlie by the way." He held out a hand.

She smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Lindsey."

"Um… Do you want to hang out sometime?" Charlie asked.

"That'd be great. Maybe you could show me around school," she said. Charlie smiled.

A few hours later Charlie glanced out his window. He had discovered that from his room he could see into Lindsey's bedroom. He felt slightly stalker-ish but there was no way on Earth that he would mention it to anybody.

Lindsey was her pajamas sitting on her bed reading. Charlie knew that the Swords started school tomorrow and for once in his life he found himself looking forward to school.

"Hey Lindsey," Charlie greeted the blond girl as she walked in to the school. He and Lindsey had agreed they would meet at school early so he could give her the tour.

"Hey Charlie," she said. "Sorry I'm late. Greg split his cereal all over me so I had to change."

"That's alright," Charlie said. He added the name Greg to the list in his mind of all the Swords.

"So this is… the hallway," Charlie said lamely. He had just enough time to show her the lunch room, main hallway, front office, and lockers before they had to grab their stuff and head to first period.

Charlie was walking home. His car was in the shop but it wasn't that far back to the house.

"Oh, hey Lindsey," he said after rounding the corner and almost running into her. Lindsey didn't respond but was on her knees in front of Wednesday. Wednesday had a bloody nose with blood dried on her face, a black eye, and tears streaming down her face.

"What happened?" Charlie asked setting his bag against a stop sign.

"Wednesday got her first experience with some bullies at school," Lindsey said.

Just then Jake, Mike, Josh, Greg, and Sean showed up. (Josh, Greg, and Sean are Wednesday brothers.) "They know better than to touch my little sis now," Josh said.

As much as Josh and Wednesday fought and competed with each other they would kill anyone who hurt the other.

"And you're sure they won't send you to juvie again?" Lindsey asked. Josh nodded.

"He's been to juvie?" Charlie asked. Lindsey nodded.

"Josh, Sean, and Wednesday are the only ones."

"But Wednesday's seven," Charlie said. Could seven year olds go to juvie?

Lindsey shrugged. "We were at Wal-mart, the manager called the cops, Wednesday had broken some dudes arm and both his legs, and she had to spend the weekend in juvie."

Charlie had to hide his surprise. "Oh."

Lindsey held Wednesday's hand and they started walking to their house.

An hour later the four bullies were found with mild injuries. Those boys sure do love Wednesday.

**I know it's kind of short and not that good but I had writers block. So shot me a review and I will give you**… ***drum roll* FREE VERTUAL COOKIES!**


	3. I HATE YOU

**Hey people. Thanks for all the reviews. *Throws virtual cookies to everyone who reviewed.* I thought I'd reply to a few.**

**Lola Ride: I'm not really sure how I thought of the name Wednesday. I just thought it sounded good for her. It really annoys me too whenever people make Jake say 'dude' all the time too. I wish I had 11 siblings. All I have is one older brother who screams like a girl and his best friend who counts as half a brother 'cuz he's always at our house. **

**Me: No it's not after the Adams Family. I've never even seen that show. **

**Chapter 2**

Sarah Baker walked with Mike over to the Swords. She was bored and Mike was going over so she was tagging along. But after he and Wednesday disappeared with several cans of spray paint she stayed behind. She knew that would lead to trouble.

"Oh, hey," Josh said walking out of his room.

"Hey Josh," Sarah said. There was a moment of awkward silence.

"You want to come play football with Billy?" Josh asked.

"Sure."

**I'M JUST A LINEBREAK! DON'T SHOOT!**

"Hey Sarah, want to go get an ice cream?" Josh asked. In the few days he had lived here he had found a small little ice cream shop that was within walking distance.

"Sure. That sounds good," Sarah said. She was drenched in sweat from running around in the summer heat.

They walked in a comfortable silence, enjoying a cool breeze. When they got there Sarah was embarrassed to find she didn't have any money with her and this time she couldn't blame her cheeks being flushed on the heat. Luckily Josh came to the rescue by paying for both of them.

"Thanks," Sarah said, licking a dribble of chocolate ice cream that had started running down the cone.

"No problem Sarah," Josh said with a small smile.

When they got back to the house the first thing they saw was that the Swords and the Bakers front yards had been spray painting in something that made no since but from an upstairs window looked like a hawk. Sarah had her suspicions about what had happened to the spray paint she had seen Wednesday and Mike with.

Wednesday was walking around singing something that was either gibberish or in a different language.

"_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci._

_Oh engem nyalni lehet mint, a gumi cumit_

_én vagyok Gummy nyami cili culi gumimaci._

_Oh Yeah._

_Gummy Gummy Gummy Gummy Gumimaci _

_Gummy Gummy Gummy Gummy Gumimaci _

_Bai ding ba doli party _

_Bamm bing ba doli party _

_Breding ba doli party party pop _

_Bai ding ba doli party _

_Bamm bing ba doli party _

_Breding ba doli party party pop _

_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci._

_Oh engem nyalni lehet mint, a gumi cumit_

_én vagyok Gummy nyami cili culi gumimaci._

_Oh Yeah._

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Háromszor csak arra…_

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Pá-pá-dubi-dubi-nyamm-nyamm_

_Háromszor csak arra…_

_Gumi gumi gumi gumi gumimaci_

_Gumi gumi gumi gumi gumimaci_

_Én vagyok a gumimaci_

_Gyere már gyere velem_

_Gyere táncolj már kérlek_

_Get get party pop._

_Én vagyok a gumicummi_

_Cicci meg a kodile a mambó csoda_

_Pápé gyere már_

_és táncolj party pop._

_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci_

_Oh engem nyalni lehet mint a gumi cumit_

_én vagyok Gummy nyami cili culi gumimaci._

_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci_

_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci_

_Itt van a gumimaci, a nevem Gummy Gummy._

_Én vagyok gumi cumi cili cuci gumimaci_

_Oh engem nyalni lehet mint a gumi cumit_

_én vagyok Gummy nyami cili culi gumimaci._

_Oh Yeah._

_Party pop._

_Party pop._

_Party pop._

_Party pop"_

"What'cha singing?" Sarah asked after a little while.

"The Gummy Bear song," Wednesday answered.

"In what language?" Sarah said with a laugh.

"Hungarian."

Sarah choked on her spit. "You know the Gummy Bear song in _Hungarian_?" she finally managed to say. Wednesday nodded.

Josh laughed. "Now you see what I have to live with."

**LINE BREAK!**

Tom Baker was furious. He had just found out where his kids were spending all there time, at his old enemies house. They were buddy-buddy with Parker Sword's kids!

"Honey, maybe you're overreacting," Kate said.

"Kate, this is the Parker Sword who would pick on everyone just because he felt like it."

"Tom that was years ago. Maybe he's changed. I meet one of his daughter and she seemed very sweet," Kate tried to reason.

"He married Margret Handers."

"We cannot let out kids be around people like that," Kate said suddenly. Margret had been the Queen Bee at school and had made every day of Kate's life miserable.

Tom smirked but didn't say anything. "Kids, living room now," he said loudly. After a few moments the whole family was piled onto the chairs and couches with a few on the floor.

"You will no longer talk to, play with, interact with, socialize with, or even think about the Sword kids," he said getting right to the point.

The whole room immediately exploded with objections. Each Baker kid was friends with a Sword kid.

"Why not?" Kim finally shouted. She had met Andrew who was one of the smartest boys she knew.

"Because I said so," Tom said but Charlie knew better.

"It's because their Parker Sword's kids isn't it?"

"Parker Sword was a trouble maker and I doubt his kids are any better," he said. The whole room exploded with objections again.

"Wednesday, Josh, and Sean have only been to juvie once each," Mark said.

"Wednesday is seven but she has been to juvie!" Tom yelled.

"She was defending her little sister!" Charlie shouted. He had heard the full story from Lindsey. Suzy, Anna, Wednesday, and Mrs. Sword had been on the upstairs at Wal-Mart **(A.N. I don't even know if Wal-Marts have upstairs) **and a man had shoved Suzy into a shelf which she had hit with her head. Mrs. Sword had tried to get him to apologize and the man spit on her. Wednesday's temper flared and she tackled him and road him like a sled down the stairs.

"We're going to keep talking to them whether you want us to or not. We go to the same schools you know," Jake said.

"You will not talk to them unless you want to be grounded for two months," Tom said.

"How are you going to find out?" Sarah asked. She and Josh were good friends.

"I will talk to your teacher," Tom said thinking fast.

"I HATE YOU!" eleven kids screamed. Each one got off of their spot on the couch or chair and went to their rooms, slamming the door.

"I think we're going to feel the rage of the Baker kids," Kate said after a moment.

**So… how was that?**


	4. Tear Tracks

**How's everybody doing? I'm back with the next chapter. And several people asked how old they were so here's just something that close to what ages they are so here's how old they'll be in my story.**

**Nora: 22, Charlie: 17, Lorraine: 15, Henry: 14, Jake: 13, Sarah: 12, Jessica and Kim: 11, Mark: 10, Mike: 7, Nigel and Kyle: 5.**

**Chapter 4**

Lindsey pretended to trip once she saw Charlie. Her books flew everywhere and the slick material of her pants skidded across the ground.

Charlie bent and helped her gather her books. As he handed her a page of half-finished math homework she pressed a tightly folded piece of paper into his hand. Charlie pretended he didn't notice it but slipped it into his pocket.

In his next class he opened it beneath his desk. _Meet me in the field behind our houses at seven tonight. All my siblings are coming. They miss you guys. –Lindsey_

Charlie smiled. He'd missed hanging out with Lindsey and the rest of the Bakers had been bored without the Swords. Some old feud in between their parents wasn't so important that they couldn't be friends.

He hadn't seen the Swords in more than a week and he was about to lose his mind. All of the Baker kids moped around and would only communicate with their parents through text messages.

The school day seemed to drag on but eventually it ended and everyone went home. Charlie did his best to sit and do his homework like he would usually do but he keep glancing at his watch.

Apparently it was too obvious that he was hurrying through his food because Tom said, "What's the rush?"

"Um…" Charlie said trying to think up a convincing lie. "I promised Henry I'd play video games with him." Tom nodded and Charlie hurried up the stairs.

The rest of the Baker kids were standing at the top of the stairs. "Come on Charlie," Mike said pulling him by the hand. HE was eager to see Wednesday.

Using Mike's repealing stuff they repealed out of a window and quietly began walking to the field behind the Swords' house. All the Sword kids sat on the ground waiting.

"We've got about an hour before our parents will notice we're gone," Lindsey said.

Charlie nodded. "We've got about that much time too."

-CBTD-

Josh Sword looked around frantically for an escape. The crackling of fire filled his ears and every second he spent inside made it harder to breathe. Wednesday had a death grip on his hand and wouldn't let go.

Suddenly there was an ear splitting cracking noise and Josh was pinned to the ground by a piece of the ceiling. He cried out in pain as one of his ribs cracked.

"Go Wednesday!" Josh shouted. "Go get help!"

Wednesday pulled the edge of her shirt over her mouth and started running.

-CBTD-

"Hey Wednesday, Mike's already in be bed," Charlie greeted as he opened the door that Wednesday had been frantically knocking on. Then Charlie looked closer at her.

She was covered in soot but her face had tear tracks, parts of her hair were singed, and she had several angry red burns.

"Wednesday, what happened?" Charlie said, kneeling down to her level. Wednesday's tears flowed faster and she was choking on her words. She could barely breathe but some how managed to get to words out that so desperately needed to be out.

"Our house is on fire."

**Ooooo... Cliff hanger. The faster you review the faster I'll write. Hurry, it's a life or death situation. Well Josh's life**


	5. Sleep

**To Lola Ride, THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU'RE MY FAVORITE REVIEWER! I'd love to be an author someday. And don't be sorry about long reviews. I love getting them. :D**

**And just so everybody knows I changed some stuff in the first chapter so you might want to go back and reread it. **** And I'm sorry for not updating for a while. **

**Chapter 5**

Tyler Swords was not having a good day. First, his alarm clock had broken and he was late for work, he had forgotten his lunch at home and had to buy his lunch from the vending machine, locked himself out of his car, and that was all before he had gotten a phone call from the hospital.

Seven of his siblings were being treated for smoke inhalation, six had burns, and Josh had cracked three of his ribs. And his parents… his parents were dead. At twenty three, Tyler was an adult and the legal guardian of twelve kids from the ages of seventeen to four. He wasn't sure he could do this.

He had a stable job that was more than enough to support one person, but thirteen? Even with monthly checks from the government it wouldn't be enough for the whole family. But Tyler would as soon as die than to split them up.

The funeral was sad. It was just the Swords and the Bakers there, but they filled the room. Tyler stood of to the side by himself while the others were scattered about the room.

He didn't know what he was going to do.

"Tyler, if you need anything we could help out. The kids are free to some over any time," Tom Baker said. Tyler nodded.

"I might need someone to watch the younger kids until I get home from work in the evenings."

"Well the kids know where we live and they've got our phone number so just drop by any time," Kate said.

Tyler was grateful that his siblings had made such good friends.

-CBTD-

"Here's the deal," Tyler said sitting on the edge of the couch. "We don't have much money so no more allowances. Jackson, Billy, Hannah, Jessie, and Lindsey you'll need to get jobs. Check down at the stores and libraries and gas stations. You can do that kind of work when you're your age. Andrew and Sean can get a paper route or mow lawns. Everyone else, I just need you to hold down the fort. You guys have to do all the chores and keep the apartment clean. We'll try to save up some money so we can buy a house, but for now we'll just have to make do with my apartment."

He looked at his siblings. Every set of eyes was red rimmed and bloodshot with dark circles underneath. It was sad that they had to deal with stuff like this while they were still so young.

-CBTD-

"Heard your mommy and daddy are dead," the school bully, Todd Hanks, taunted. Wednesday ignored him and pulled her backpack out of her cubby. She yanked a folder full of graded paper from her desk and shoved it into her bag and yanked the zipper shut.

_He was held back for a reason,_ she thought. _He's an idiot. _She remembered something her sisters would always tell her. _Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. _She swung her backpack onto her back and walked outside to wait for the bus.

"Aw, don't be sad," the nine year old said, following Wednesday. "They were probably happy to be away from you and the rest of your bratty siblings," he said mockingly.

"Shut up," Wednesday yelled. Her pale eyes were burning with rage and her fists were clenched so tight that her knuckles were white.

"Aw… Is the little baby going to cry?" he taunted. Something snapped for Wednesday and she threw her bag at him down and lunged.

The nine year old might have had size and weight on her, but Wednesday was mad and she was used to hitting people. Wednesday was sitting on his back with his arm twisted behind his back while he kicked her repeatedly in the back.

-CBTD-

Tyler sighed as he walked into Wednesday's school. He could see his little sister asleep in a plastic chair with a book lying open on her lap. He couldn't say that he blamed her for sleeping. She had been sitting there since 3:20 and now it was 7:30. She could use the extra sleep anyways.

The secretary stood and handed Tyler some papers. "Here are the times for her detention. Todd's parents have agreed not sue as long as Wednesday is punished," she said.

"She will be," Tyler lied. He closed Wednesday's book, put it into her backpack, slung one strap over his shoulder, draped Wednesday over his other shoulder, and started walking towards his truck. He climbed into the driver's side and handed Wednesday to Billy who buckled her into the seat beside him.

When they got home Billy carried Wednesday inside and set her gently on the couch. "She hasn't been getting enough sleep," he said, settling down to work on a school project.

Tyler ran a hand through his hair. "Neither have you little brother."

Being a parent was hard.


	6. Hostages

**I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T UPDATE SOONER!**

**Lola Ride: You're sooooooo awesome. You're my new best friend OK? I didn't update sooner because I didn't see your review for a while and I was like ' everyone hated the chapter! ', but you didn't hate it! And the ice cream thing doesn't work on me. I'm lactose intolerant. I love ice cream, but then I get sick unless I take my medicine before I have it, but I don't take it too often cuz it's kinda expensive. And I work on my own original stories a lot at home, but it would be hard for me to get published. I'm just a kid! But getting published is on my list of things to do before I'm eighteen. **

**Chapter 6**

Wednesday was sore when she woke up, but she scrambled up and into her clothes. She was late and the bus was already gone so she would have to run to school if she wanted to be on time for her math test. She ran her fingers through her tangled hair and yanked her hair into pigtails. Wednesday jammed her feet into her shoes and dashed out the door with her untied laces slapping the ground with every step.

She got to school with exactly forty nine seconds left and had just enough time to hang her backpack in her cubby and get into her seat before the teacher started taking role.

For the rest of the day people avoided Wednesday. The Bakers and the Swords talked to each other, but no one else did. Finally, Wednesday's curiosity got the better of her and she asked Billy what was going on at lunch.

"Everyone knows that you got into a fight with Hanks," Billy said. "He's spreading the word that we all live with Tyler now."

Wednesday clenched her fist, closed her eyes, and counted to ten. The counselor had given her a lesson on anger management. Half of her detention time would be in the counselor's office.

"But who cares really," Charlie said. "You guys are cool and Tyler a great guy. I don't see why it matter that you all live with him."

"Charlie," Lindsey said. She paused and swallowed before speaking. "There are fourteen of us crammed into an apartment with a kitchen, one bedroom, and a small living room. Everyone thinks, well everyone knows, that we're poor."

"But I don't see how it's such a big deal," Charlie said. "Money doesn't change what kind of person you are."

Lindsey sighed and opened her mouth to speak, but Wednesday cut her off. "It doesn't change what kind of people we are, but it does change how people see us." Lindsey hid a grin at her baby sister's logic.

-Line-

Tyler was freaking out. Wednesday was supposed to be back from detention an hour ago. When he had called the school and the terrified sounding secretary said that Billy had come by and picked her up forty five minutes ago. Where were they? It wasn't like Billy to just take off somewhere without telling Tyler.

Tyler nearly jumped out of his skin as the phone rang. _There's Billy, _he thought as he walked to pick up the phone. He made up a story in his head to go along with it. _Wednesday bit the counselor so he was just getting that all sorted out. That's all._

"Hello?" Tyler said into the phone.

"Is this Tyler Sword?" a man's voice asked. Tyler was surprised slightly by it; he had been expecting the nervous sound of Billy about to break the news to Tyler that Wednesday had bit a person's thumb or something. This voice was strong and firm, like that of an adult who was used to commanding people. It was slightly unnerving.

"Yes. I'm Tyler," he said. "Is something wrong?"

"This is Officer Rigors with the police department. Was your younger sister at detention at Midland Elementary, Middle, and High School?" the voice said, ignoring the question.

"Yes," Tyler said, growing increasingly nervous. "Has something happened?"

"Did your brother come by to pick her up around six thirty?"

"Yes. Has something happened?" Tyler repeated loudly into the phone. "What's going on?"

"A white male in his mid to late forties walked into the school office and pulled a gun. He took your siblings, the secretary, and the principal as hostages."

**They can never catch a break can they? Sorry for the chapter being kind of short but I've got writers block. It sucks soooooo much.**


	7. Gunshot

**Lola Ride and EVERYONE! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever. There was a tornado, my power went out, and I still don't have internet or live television. I had to steal my dad's laptop for this. But I will use blood, sweat, tears, threats, blackmail, and sporks to get the story online because I am seriously addicted to this story. **

**Lola Ride: I LOVE GUMMY WORMS! AND I LOVE GETTING YOUR REVIEWS SOOOOOO MUCH! IT'S ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF MY WEEKS! I'M LIKE, "LOOK IT! LOLA RIDE REVIEWED!" AND THEN I RUN AROUND SCREAMING WITH JOY! I'll let you in on a little secret once you make an account, but I don't want to post it online for the world to see. That could end badly. *Shudder* SO ON WITH THE STORY!**

**WARNING! THIS IS KINDA SHORT! I WAS RUSHING BECAUSE MY PARENTS WERE YELLING FOR ME TO GO TO BED! I WAS WORKING LIKE A NINJA OR SOMETHING! PERSONALLY I THOUGHT IT WAS PRETTY AMZING THAT THEY DIDN'T KILL ME. **

**Chapter 7**

Wednesday would never admit it, but she was scared out of her mind. Her older brother, Billy, had just come in to pick her up from detention and take her home. She was supposed to be at home right now, doing chores, not waiting to see whether or not this psychopath was going to kill her or let her and her brother go free. It was enough to make grown men shake in fear, but Wednesday did her best to stay steady. She needed to figure out how to get out of here, not have an emotional breakdown.

She ran through all of the things she had ever escaped in her life. Once, she had been locked in a closet by one of her older brothers. Remembering a trick she had seen in a movie, she had busted the light bulb and used it as a lock pick. It had taken almost ten minutes, but it had gotten her out of the closet. But this was a school building, not a closet. Other than crawling out of her window to avoid cleaning her bedroom and sneaking out to see the Bakers there wasn't much else. Wednesday sighed with frustration and slumped against a wall.

Billy wasn't having much luck either. Other than sitting tight and waiting to see what the police would do he didn't know what to do. Hopefully he could keep his impulsive little sister out of trouble.

* * *

Tyler was about to have a fit. He had lost both of his parents; there was no way in heaven or on Earth that he was going to lose two of his siblings as well. God, they couldn't catch a break could they? They move, their parents hate their only friends' parents and their only friends' parents hate their parents, their house catches on fire, their siblings get hurt, their parents _die, _and now two of them are being held hostage by a crazed psychopath who seems to want nothing other than to hold them hostage. How was this fair?

Oh who was he kidding? Life was never fair.

Suddenly the phone rang again and all of the Swords leaned forward to try and hear what was said as Tyler answered.

"Hello?" His tone was anxious and cautious, trying to hope but not be too hopeful. This call could be to tell him that the man had shot his siblings and they were both dead now. Who knew?

"The man who has taken your siblings hostage has made his demands. He says that he wants his brother, who has a life sentence in prison with no chance of parole, released within the next eighteen hours or else, and I quote, 'the little one gets it'. We will attempt to negotiate with him and will call you back with the first sign of news." With that the police officer hung up and left the Swords more worried than they had been before the call.

The cops couldn't release a murderer, but they couldn't let his brother kill their little sister. She was only seven, how was it fair that she had to deal with all this?

"If-" Tyler started, but then cut himself off. "_When _we get her back, we're going to make sure she grows up normal. I don't care what I have to do; Wednesday is going to live a good, happy, normal life even if it kills me."

Little did they know that only a few miles away, at the school, a lone gunshot rang out.

**You know I kind of hate myself sometimes. I leave you with such a cliffy while knowing that I won't be able to update for a while. I'm a terrible person. *Sniffle* I'M SO SORRY!**


	8. Thank God for Genius Camp

**Lola Ride: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Everybody I know is okay, but several people I know lost their homes. But guess what? THE INTERNET IS BACK! And I'm glad I bring you joy too. And as soon as you get a fanfiction PM me and I'll add you too my favorites. And you are a SUPER awesome reviewer so more people should tell you that you are their favorite. Your reviews are optimistic and you don't ever say that a chapter is crap. It's awesome! The world needs more Lola Rides. **

**Chapter 8**

Wednesday yelped as the bullet chipped the wall a few inches to the left of her head. She gulped and looked at the man who was looking vicious as he held the gun, ready to shot her.

"That was a warning," he hissed. "Stop trying to escape." He suddenly exploded, shouting at Wednesday. "THERE IS NO ESCAPE! THEY WILL REALEASE CLAYTON OR YOU WILL ALL DIE!" The man shuffled away mumbling to himself as Wednesday slumped against the wall and said a word that would have her mouth washed with soap under normal circumstances.

"Wednesday," Billy whispered. "What were you doing? Are you alright?"

Wednesday nodded. "I'm fine. There's a window in every classroom. If we could get into one of them we could get out. But I can't get in there without him seeing."

Billy nodded and closed his eyes to think. "Do you still remember sign language from genius camp?"

Wednesday nodded. "Tell the principal and the secretary about it. One of them should understand something and they might know how to make a distraction or get you to somewhere with a window."

Wednesday shook her head. "Not me, Billy. You got to do it."

"No," Billy said firmly. "You're my little sister. You are getting out of here."

The little girl shook her head firmly, her gaze cold. "Your legs are longer so you could run faster. You've got to go."

Billy could sense that her mind wasn't changing. "I'm not leaving you here," he said, but his confidence that he could convince her was sinking quickly.

"Billy, if you can get out than you can get help or something," Wednesday said.

"What good would that do?" Billy asked. "The cops already know were in here. They just don't know how to get us out."

Wednesday looked up at him, suddenly looking very small and afraid. "I lost my parents, Billy, I'm not going to lose you to," she whispered. Right before his eyes she was going from an independent little girl with a hothead and a tendency to hit people when they caused problems into a scared, grief stricken little girl who was terrified of seeing the death of her older brother. It scared Billy how rapidly he could suddenly see it.

"You're my little sister, Wed," Billy whispered. "I'm supposed to protect you, not the other way around."

Wednesday grabbed his hand and it made Billy's heart ache to feel how quickly her tiny hands had become calloused. "Just because I'm little doesn't mean I can't protect you too."

"But you shouldn't have to," Billy said slightly louder. He closed his eyes for a few seconds to try and get back to being calm. "You're seven years old. You should be outside playing games or something, not trying to figure out how to escape from a hostage situation. It's not fair to you and that isn't how life is supposed to work."

Wednesday looked down at Billy's hand and traced the veins. "You're sixteen," she finally said. "You should be driving your car or hanging out with friends or- or even arguing with your parents. But instead you're here, trying to figure out how to save us from a crazed maniac with a loaded gun."

Suddenly Wednesday froze and began whacking herself on the forehead with her open palm and muttering "Stupid" over and over again. Billy grabbed her hand to stop the self-abuse.

"What's stupid?" he asked once he had her hand secured in his.

"It was right in front of us the whole time," she said with a slightly hysterical laugh. Billy could see the independent, hotheaded little girl coming back rapidly. "At 'genius camp' as you call it, we learned how to handle guns. The gun, its safety has been off the entire time. I doubt he even knows how to use it."

Without waiting for her older brother to reply, ther was no way he would agree so she didn't ask, she stood and hurled herself in a flying tackle at the man. Wednesday was much smaller, but she caught him off guard. The man crashed to the floor and the gun clattered to the floor. Billy leapt to his feet and snatched it off the ground and pulled Wednesday up by her arm.

He spun her around rapidly as he checked for injuries and held her face in between his palms and looked in her eyes to make sure she hadn't somehow gotten a concussion. Wednesday was fine. Handing the gun to the principal who took over the job of guarding their had been captor, Billy sank to his knees and clutched Wednesday to his chest. Oh God, that had been so close. If Wednesday's logic had been flawed than she could easily be dead right now. But since when was Wednesday ever wrong?

Billy sniffled, rubbed a hand across his face, and picked up the phone off of the front desk and dialed Tyler's number.

"Hey," he croaked. "We're alright, but I've got a story you won't believe." And he finally smiled.

**So how was that? And this is not the end. **


	9. Delinquency

**Lola Ride: OK. Maybe the rules will change by then. And if they don't I'll just keep talking to you like this. **

**Chapter 9**

In all of Andrew Sword's eleven years of life he could never recall being more scared than he had been when Wednesday and Billy were being held hostage at the school- or more guilty. The same image of him snatching a shiny green sucker from Wednesday's fist and watching her crestfallen face as he took the piece of candy that she had been good all day to get and jammed it in his mouth. She had kicked him hard enough to leave a waffle sized bruise, but you could tell she would rather have had the sucker.

And he had been so scared that he was going to lose his little sister and the last thing he had ever done for her was snatch a piece of candy. He felt inside of the pocket of his baggy pajama pants that had started out as Billy's and been passed down to him and felt the sucker that he had bought with the five dollars he had found.

Tiptoeing into the kitchen he saw Wednesday curled up with a blanket on top of the refrigerator. He chuckled, Wednesday loved to sleep in odd places. He stretched up and felt around for Wednesday's little fist. Once he found it he gently places the stick of the candy into her hand.

He was finally able to go to sleep after that.

**-CBTD -**

Everyone at school had heard what had happened by the time they went back to school. Wednesday felt subconscious and all of her siblings subconsciously formed a protective wall around the pail girl who still wasn't totally recovered from all the traumatic experiences that had been going on lately. She was doing well, but a seven year old girl isn't made to cope with the death of her parents and being held hostage in her elementary school all in the same month. At least she didn't have detention any more, just counseling.

But it didn't come as a surprise when Todd Hanks started bothering Wednesday again. After four days it was even less of a surprise when Tyler got a call from the school telling him that Wednesday and Todd had been fighting again and Wednesday was suspended for four days. He was disappointed in her, but there was no way on Earth that he would have the heart to punish her.

With the way the Swords were acting, you would think that somebody had died. All of their grades were slipping, they were getting in trouble all the time, and they were distant from everyone. The Bakers tried not to judge, but everyone else had loose lips about their suspicions of drugs and drinking in the Swords' apartment. It was no longer a shock to Tyler whenever one of his siblings came home with a split lip, a black eye, or a limp. They could no longer stand what people said, a person can only take so much. They had snapped.

No one, including the Swords, could understand what was happening to them. Were they going crazy? Were they in shock? What was going on?

"Tyler?" Suzy had asked out of the blue one day. "Are we going to go to hell?"

Tyler had frozen when she asked that. "Why would you think that?" Suzy shrugged.

"Because the kids at school say that bad people fight and since we fight we're going to go to hell," she explained, picking an apple out of the fruit bowl and biting into it.

"We're no bad people," Tyler said. "We're just having a hard time. Your siblings aren't taking it well and some kids at school are being mean so they fight so that maybe the mean kids won't bother them anymore."

"Oh," Suzy said, picking a brown spot off of the apple with her fingers. "Okay. What's for dinner?"

Suzy hadn't mentioned it again, but the question stuck in Tyler's mind. Is that what his siblings thought? Did they still believe that they were good people or did they think that they were going to hell like Suzy had said? He had lost sleep and given himself a headache with those questions dancing around in his mind and had finally dropped it.

**-CBTD-**

Tyler had just pulled on his shirt and jeans when the knock at the door came. He glances at the clock, 6:34, before opening it. A woman in a crisp blue blouse and a man in a thin, white button up shirt were at the door and Tyler self-consciously glances around the small, messy apartment. With a sigh he opened up the door.

"Can I help you?" he asked the two people.

"Are you Tyler Sword?" the man asked in a loud, deep voice. Tyler nodded and the woman then spoke.

"I'm Donna Duncan from the social services," Tyler stomach flopped, "and this is Bob Clarke from the juvenile delinquency home. **(I made this up. I have no clue what would actually happen in this situation.) ** You're siblings are becoming juvenile delinquents and we no longer believe you are capable of caring for them. We're here to collect them."

**I'm evil aren't I?**


	10. Split Up

**Lola Ride: Haha. You're funny. My parents don't let me have sugar because it makes me hyper and then I start bouncing off the walls, but I'm magic so somehow I get candy and sugar anyways. Mwahahahaha! **

**Chapter 10**

"What?" Tyler finally chocked out.

"Your siblings fight, they get into trouble, and they're menaces to society. You have no control over them," Bob said.

"We're going through a hard time. Our parents died and Wednesday and Billy were taken hostage at school. Kids at school are picking on them so they fight back," Tyler said. "I'll get them under better control, but their just having a hard time."

"Tyler," Donna said, "They put a kid in the hospital today. The parents have agreed not to sue because their son was starting to rough up one of your siblings, but the children had to be picked up by the police. They're in custody at the police office. You have no control over them."

Tyler took a deep breath and held it for a moment to calm down. "They're just kids. You can't put them all in juvie or a juvenile delinquency home," he finally said.

"They're being interviewed by other police officer and social workers. We'll decide who needs to be in foster care and who will be put into a delinquency home," Bob said.

Tyler was losing this battle. "Please," he finally said. "They're all I have left. Don't take my siblings away from me."

"You can't take care of them. We'll interview them, decide who goes where, and take them there tomorrow," Donna said. Tyler wanted to scream and cry and pitch a fit, but it would only get his siblings father away from him.

"Is there any way I could get them back?" he finally asked.

Bob and Donna were quiet for a moment before Donna spoke, "Lindsey turns eighteen in eleven months. If she got a job to help pay, you proved that you could control the kids, and found a good babysitter for when the kids weren't in school then it would be possible. Or if you married, proved that you could control and provide for them, and Lindsey watched the kid while you were at work then you could get the kids out of foster care. The children in a delinquency home would have to stay a few more months, but you could possibly get them back as well. But until then the children would remain in juvenile hall or foster care."

There was a short series of fast beeps and Donna pulled out a phone. "They've decided who needs to go into foster care and who needs the delinquency home. We'll drive you down to the station so you can hear the news as a group."

Tyler could only nod numbly and followed them out and into the squad car. By the time they got to the police station he had come out of the sort of trance state he had been in and the full reality of the situation sank in. Oh god, he could really lose his siblings now couldn't he?

Donna grabbed a file off of the front desk and led him back into a room where the kids were sitting, naïve. Wednesday was sitting at a table with a police officer showing him a magic trick with cards. Oh god, Wednesday was probably going to be showing that trick to someone in a delinquency home soon,

The kids all sat on a bench and Tyler wrapped his arms around Suzy and Anna. He rubbed his hand up and down comfortingly on their forearms. Donna pulled a sheet of paper out of the file and set the rest down on the table. She cleared her throat slightly before speaking.

"Lindsey, Hannah, Jessie, Jackson, Andrew, Penny, Anna, and Suzy are going into foster care. In eleven months when Lindsey turns eighteen you may attempt to regain custody of these children," she said. The eight children gave sighs that we're half relieved for themselves and half sad that so many of their siblings were going into a delinquency home.

"Everyone else had two years in a delinquency home. After those two years you'll be sent into foster care," Bob said. The siblings who were being sent to a delinquency home leaned together slightly.

"Are you going to put us in the same… delinquency home or are you going to split us up even more?" Billy asked.

"We'll try to get you into the same foster and delinquency homes, but we'll just send you were ever there is space. A few of you should be together though. We're going to be sending you all over the country, but there are more open places in the southern states now," Bob said.

A red haired woman stuck her head into the room. "The fax for the Sword kids' arrangements has just come in," she said. Bob and Donna left the room and Tyler looked at his siblings.

"'M sorry, Tyler," Wednesday said after a minute. "I swung first."

Tyler opened his mouth to reply, but Billy cut him off. "If you get in a fight to keep someone else or yourself from being hurt it is never your fault. You tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't quit. So you defended yourself, we helped out, and he got hurt."

"Who was bothering you anyways?" Tyler asked.

"Tom Hanks, his older brothers, and their friends," Jackson said. "Tom snatched her backpack and shoved her down. She told him to back off, but then one of his older brothers started shoving her, so Wednesday got up swinging."

"You get hurt?" Tyler asked.

"Not really," Wednesday said. "Couple bruises and my lip is busted, but I'm fine." Wednesday popped two of her knuckles and rolled her wrist.

Tyler gently picked up her hand and looked it over. "Go easy on that hand. It looks like you popped some of the knuckles out of place," he said. Wednesday nodded and moved to sit next to Tyler.

Tyler wrapped his arms around Wednesday's shoulders and she leaned onto him. "Why does everything have to be so hard?" she whispered. Tyler tried to swallow the choked up feeling in his throat as he smoothed down her hair which was sticking up in every direction.

"It'll be okay, baby," he finally whispered. "We'll be okay."

Suddenly a memory jumped out at Tyler. He was suddenly just a sixteen year old kid holding his kid sister as she giggled. Wednesday had been a tiny baby, several weeks premature, but she was almost always smiling a toothless smile.

Donna and Bob stepped back in Justas Wednesday and Tyler pulled apart. Donna handed Tyler a file and he opened it with shaking fingers.

"Lindsey, Anna, and Suzy are going to Bill and Macy Hendricks's house in Nashville, Tennessee. Jessie, Jackson, and Andrew are going to Jack and Diane Charleston's house in San Antonio, Texas. Penny and Hannah are going to Lewis and Claire McNeil's house in Orange Beach, Florida. Wednesday, Josh, and Greg are going to a delinquency home in Atlanta, Georgia. Billy and Sean are going to Birmingham, Alabama," Tyler read off. His heart panged painfully as he read how far apart all of his siblings were going.

After a half hour the Swords went home to pack and spend one last night together before they were split up.


	11. Changing

**Lola Ride: I have seen the movie Lemonade Mouth and I think it's AWESOME. Do you? And I do like Justin Bieber (as a musical artist) but I'm not one of those crazy fan girls who wants to marry him or cries over him. :P He's waaaaay too old for me. It's illegal. Do you like him? (And if you do have you heard of Greyson Chance?) Most people do prefer Fax, but I'm a rebel so I go 'MIGGY!' And I'm not allowed to tell my real name on fanfiction either. But I don't really want to. What if someone started stalking me or something? That would be freaky.**

** AGES FOR THE SWORD KIDS! Tyler 23, Lindsey 17, Billy 16, Hannah 15, Jessie 14, Josh 12, Jackson and Andrew 11, Sean 10, Greg 9, Penny 8, Wednesday 7, and Anna and Suzy are 5.**

**Chapter 11**

Wednesday had a small backpack slung over her shoulder as she walked into the Grayson Delinquency Home for Uncontrollable Youths. She, Josh, and Greg were being escorted into the building by a police officer.

"So these are the new punks," one of the GDHUY workers said. He laughed and said, "What type of parent can't control these little brats?"

Josh elbowed Wednesday in the ribs to keep her from retorting. "The parents were dead and a twenty-three year old was trying to take care of thirteen of 'em," the police officer said. The worker nodded, took the Sword kid's backpacks and began rummaging through them. He pulled out everything, expected it quickly, and shoved it back into the bag. Then he glanced at each of them and tossed them drab gray jumpsuits.

"Change in there," he said pointing with his thumb. Wednesday went into the one with a female symbol on the door and Greg and Josh went into the males. When they came back out in the baggy gray clothes the police officer had left.

The GDHUY dude tossed their backpacks at them and they followed him into a long and skinny room with bunks built into the walls on both sides. The bunks were about two and a half feet across and not quite six feet long. The blankets were thin and navy blue. There was a small row of drawers, about a foot long and four or five inches tall, with names written on them in sharpie. Each bunk had a nail just below the one above it or the ceiling that was serving as a hanger for backpacks for several people.

"Girls on the left, boys on the right," the GDHUY dude said. Wednesday saw a nametag with the name 'Clarks' on it. "Lights go out at ten thirty. Put your stuff down on the empty bunks and follow me out to the workout room."

_Workout room? _Wednesday thought as she climbed onto the top bunk of the last set. _I thought we were in a delinquency home, not prison. _

The three Sword kids followed Clarks into a room with concrete walls, floors, and ceiling. There were about twenty other kids there. It looked a lot like how Greg always imagined a jail workout room only it was full of teenagers, they were lifting weights, doing pushups, sit-ups, chin-ups, and any other kind of exercise you could do inside a crowded little room.

"Listen up," Clarks barked. "These are the newbies. We've got Greg, Josh, and Wednesday Swords. They're poor kids so hide your valuables." Clarks snickered at his own joke, but the teenagers remained quiet. Josh could hear the popping of Wednesday's knuckles as her hands clenched into fists. "So you know what this means?"

"Evaluation." It was a word that was mumbled from the lips of everyone in the room. The three Sword kids could practically feel the pity coming off of the teenagers in waves.

"That's right,' Clarks said. "Let's have the big one first." He grabbed the stop watch that dangled from his neck. "Do as many pushups as possible before you vomit." Josh nodded and got down into push up position. "Go," Clarks said.

Josh began doing pushups quickly. His arms stated to tremble slightly in the fifties. Wednesday and Greg could tell by the set of his jaw and the glint in his eyes that he wasn't going to stop until he was flat on his stomach. That happened somewhere in the sixties. Clarks smirked and motioned for Greg to go next. Greg managed somewhere in the twenties before flopping down. Finally Wednesday was going.

Her arms trembled and she shook as she did it, but she was refusing to quit. She kept moving at a furious pace that seemed to be surprising some of the teenagers.

"She's tough isn't she?" one boy whispered to Josh. Josh nodded.

"She always has been," he said, not bothering to try and keep the pride out of his tone. "She's stubborn too."

Somewhere in the forties Wednesday flopped down on her stomach. She scrambled to her feet, her arms trembling slightly.

Clarks smirk was back and Wednesday met it with a fierce glare. "You enjoy that little girl?" he said, leaning down to Wednesday's eyelevel. Wednesday nodded and popped her knuckles, a habit she had.

"Good," Clarks said, "Because you will push yourself beyond your limit every day. The Grayson Delinquency Home for Uncontrollable Youths is where the uncontrollable will become controlled."

"But then we wouldn't be called 'uncontrollable'," Wednesday said.

Josh was shooting Wednesday a look that said "back down", but Wednesday ignored it for a moment as she stood nose to nose with Clarks. Finally a bell rang, interrupting their face off. The teenagers put down their stuff and headed out into the hallway. The three Sword kids followed and ended up in the cafeteria with the rest of them.

A chubby lady was placing a brown blob and a handful of crackers on each tray and then the teenager would go and sit at a table. Greg, Josh, and Wednesday got their glop and went to sit at an empty table in the corner. They stuck a cracker in the blob and nibbled it, it looked worse than it tasted which wasn't saying much, until one teenager, a boy about thirteen with wild hair, sat down at their table.

"I'm Dustin," he said.

"I'm Josh, he's Greg, and she's Wednesday," Josh said after chewing a bite of cracker and glop.

"What did you do to get sent here?" Dustin asked.

"Wednesday was in a fight with a bunch of guys so we and some of our other siblings jumped in to help. We beat the crap out of them so we got arrested," Josh said.

Dustin looked at Wednesday and said, "Let me guess, you're the family hothead?"

Wednesday nodded. "I don't like it when people just think they can shove me around because I'm small."

Dustin nodded thoughtfully. "My sister and I got sent here for the same reason, hot temper, jerks, and fighting. Most people here are here for that reason."

"Anyone we need to look out for?" Josh asked.

"I would say Clarks, but I don't think Spitfire here would do that. Just avoid the Graysons as much as possible," Dustin advised.

"Who are the Graysons anyways?" Greg asked.

"Mr. and Mrs. Grayson own the place. They and their kids live upstairs. We're not allowed up their unless you get called up to Mr. Grayson's office which is bad," Dustin said.

The tree Sword kids and Dustin kept talking and eating their glop for a little while before another bell rang. Josh, Greg, and Wednesday followed Dustin into a classroom where a blond woman was standing in front of the room. They slid into desk and started copying down what was written on the bed.

-CBTD-

Mike sighed. School was so boring without the Swords. Last night the Bakers had gotten a phone call from an upset Tyler telling them about how all of his siblings were being sent to delinquency homes or foster care. Mike had wanted to cry, but he didn't. He wouldn't see his best friend for about a year at least. It wasn't fair.

The Bakers had found Hanks and had angrily beaten the crap out of them. This whole thing was their fault.

"This sucks," Jake said as he flopped down on the couch where Mike was sitting.

"It sucks majorly," Mike agreed. "I'm going to go crazy without Wednesday around. It's so boring!"

Jake nodded. "Do you think they'll be different when they come back?" he asked.

"How could they not be?" Mike said. "Foster care and delinquency homes have got to change a person." Mike hoped it wouldn't change them so much that they didn't want to be friends with the Bakers anymore.


	12. Grown Up

**OH MY GOSH I LOVED THE REVIEWS I GOT FOR THE LAST CHAPTER! I know it's kind of pathetic that I get so excited over two reviews, but they were AMAZING!**

**Lola Ride: I AGREE WITH JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU JUST SAID INVOLVING LEMONADE MOUTH AND JB. Well I kind of suck at singing, but I'm pretty decent with playing rhythm and notes and my music teacher is always like 'WHY CAN'T YOU BE MORE LIKE HER?' to all the other kids and they're like *glare*. Andrew Jackson does sound really familiar. Google says that he was the seventh president of the United States. I didn't even mean to do that when I wrote it. *Starts laughing like a little nut.* OH I DID THE STUPIDEST THING TODAY! I SLAMMED A CAR DOOR ON MY RIBS AND IT HURT LIKE CRAZY!**

**Matchakorky: Awww… Thanks! I might just do that. *Starts grinning and rubbing hands together evilly* **

**Chapter 12**

Lindsey Sword smiled. It had been a year and four months, but she was finally getting her siblings back. As soon as she had aged out of the foster system five months ago she had headed back to Tyler to work on getting the rest of her siblings back. The Swords wouldn't get Wednesday, Josh, Greg, Billy, or Sean back for another seven months but she would get some of her siblings back. And over the time that she had been in foster care Tyler had gotten promoted and with his increased pay check he had been able to buy a house. It wasn't huge, but it was big enough for the Swords to be comfortable in.

But for the entire time they had gotten no word about their siblings in delinquency home other than a report every three months. Lindsey was kind of nervous about what they would be like when they came back. Would they be brats? Would they feel distant from everyone now?

There was only one way to find out.

-CBTD-

Eighteen year old Billy Sword wanted to see Wednesday more than any of his other siblings. Two years ago Wednesday had been a short seven year old girl with brown hair that had streaks of blond bleached in by spending lots of time outside. Now she was a nine year old girl who had spent the last two years of her life in a delinquency home.

He almost didn't recognize her when he got home. Her hair was almost black with streaks the color of milk chocolate and was cut raggedy at about four inches below her chin. Her skin was pale and she looked like she could use a good nap and some time in the sun. She looked a lot stronger than she had before and skinnier.

Josh and Greg were the same but they just had short shaggy hair. They had each earned a hard, cold, determined look in their eyes. It was honestly a little scary and made Billy wonder what had happened to them in the Grayson Delinquency Home for Uncontrollable Youths.

"Hey guys," Tyler said, bending down and wrapping his arms around them in a hug. The three of them flinched away, hesitated, and then returned the hug.

"Have you been doing well?" he asked. The three of them shrugged together.

"We eat, we exercise, and we learn," Greg said.

"Did you behave?" Tyler asked.

"Josh and I did after a little while. It took Spif a couple trips to the Grayson office before she started shaping up," Greg said.

"Spif?" Billy asked with a raised eyebrow.

Josh and Greg nodded. "We met a boy named Dustin and he started calling Wednesday Spitfire. Sometimes we shorten it down to Spif," Josh explained.

Tyler wasn't exactly sure how to reply so he just nodded. "Well do you want to get settled into your rooms? You'll each get your own."

Wednesday, Josh, Greg, Sean, and Billy nodded and picked up their backpacks which were considerably lighter than they had been two years ago. They each found a room and Tyler was surprised that they didn't start wrestling for the best room like they would have two years ago. Wednesday and Billy said nothing about getting the two room that were up in the attic space. Gosh, Tyler wished they'd throw a fit or something. Just to let him know that there was still some regular child in them.

"The Bakers are two houses down if you want to go see them," Tyler said to break the quiet over dinner. "You could go see them after we eat," he offered.

Wednesday nodded. "I'll go talk to Mike," she said. She finished eating quickly then went outside.

-CBTD-

Mike almost jumped for joy when he saw Wednesday approaching. He had been nervous that he wouldn't recognize her, but he would know her anywhere. The last two years had been tough on Mike. He had a hard time making new friends and mostly just stuck with the rest of the Bakers.

"JAKE," he yelled. "It's Wednesday."

Jake came thundering down the stairs holding his skateboard with a broad grin on his face. "Sweet," he said. "Tyler said they would probably be coming today."

The two ran out the door and towards Wednesday. "Hey Wednesday," Mike called.

"Hey Mike, hey Jake," Wednesday called back a faint smile flickering across her features. They went over to a tree, climbed up, and sat on a branch.

For the next hour they sat on the branch talking, catching up, joking, laughing, and smiling. Wednesday seemed a little hesitant at first, but soon she was hopelessly laughing and smiling with the two Baker boys.

Wednesday wrapped her legs around the branch and dangled down. Mike and Jake could see a bunch of scars across her back.

"What happened to your back?" Jake asked.

"What do you mean?" Wednesday said. She pulled herself back up onto the branch and pulled her shirt down.

"The scars," Mike said. "You have a bunch on your back."

"They're just from lickings," Wednesday said with a shrug. "Clarks was in charge of us a lot and he would kick you or take a belt to your back if you were misbehaving. And every time I got sent to Mr. Grayson's office I got twenty lickings with a cane."

Jake and Mike's eyes went wide. "That sounds like it hurts really badly," Mike said.

"That's kinda the point," Wednesday said. "If you get hurt every time you do something bad then it makes you want to stop being bad or at least stopped you enough to make you think."

"Did they bruise or bleed a lot?" Jake asked.

Wednesday bent down and pulled her shirttail up. "I got a licking two days ago for talking about going home," she said.

Jake and Mike nearly threw up as they looked at the black, blue, purple, yellow, and green bruises that surrounded each cut that was about three inches wide.

"Wednesday that's abuse!" Jake said. Wednesday shook her head.

"It's a delinquency home Jake," she said. "They can do whatever they find necessary to turn juvenile delinquents into good kids."

"It's still not fair," Jake said. Wednesday laughed a cold, humorlessly laugh that sounded unusual coming from someone her age.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you life isn't fair?" Wednesday said. She glanced at her watch and leapt from the tree, landing on her feet and bending her knees slightly. "I gotta get home," she said and started walking back home.

So Mike and Jake Baker sat and watched a little girl who had to grow up too fast walk away/


	13. Lawn Care?

**Chapter 13**

"Yo, Spitfire," a familiar voice shouted.

"Dustin?" Wednesday said whirling around. Dustin chuckled and nodded.

"The one and only," he joked, walking up to where Wednesday was sitting in a tree with Greg and Josh.

"What are you doing here?" Josh asked.

"I got out about a week or so after you guys left. My parents thought that the quiet would keep me tame so we moved out here," Dustin said. He looked at Wednesday. "How's your back from that licking?" he asked.

Wednesday shrugged. "It's still bruised, but the cut is starting to heal," she said.

Dustin nodded. "Good deal Spif," he said. Then he noticed the skateboard sitting by her feet.

"You a boarder?" he asked. Wednesday nodded. "Why you holding back on me Spif?" he joked. "I thought we were tight."

Wednesday grinned at him. "How's your sister?" she asked.

"Lola's doing fine. She's friends with them Baker kids you used to talk about," Dustin said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the Bakers house.

"If you come back around seven you can meet Tyler," Greg offered.

"Sure," Dustin said. "You wanna come over and see Lola?"

"Sure," Wednesday said. She jumped from the tree. "You guys coming?" she asked her brothers.

"Yeah, one sec," Josh said. He dashed into the house, scribbled a note, put it on the kitchen table, and dashed back out. "Let's roll," he said.

The three Swords followed Dustin over to his house. Dustin rapped his knuckles against Lola's door before he barged in and jumped onto her bed.

"Dustin!" Lola said. "What's the big idea?" she asked irritably.

"Look what the cat dragged in," Dustin said.

Lola caught sight of Josh, Greg, and Wednesday and her face broke out into a grin. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked

"We lived here first," Greg said with a grin. "When did you guys move in?"

"Just yesterday," Lola said. "Most of our stuff is still in boxes." She drew there attention to the boxes by kicking one.

"Did you guys get your records wiped?" Wednesday asked.

Lola nodded. "Clean as a whistle. We passed the exam and they cleaned them so we could have a fair chance of getting into good schools and junk." Lola laughed, "as if we would ever go to a good school."

"It'll help ya get into college or something I think," Josh said.

The three Swords and Lola and Dustin spent the next the next forty minutes talking. Josh glanced at his watch.

"We should probably be getting back before Billy freaks out and thinks that you've killed us," Josh said only half joking. "Come by in about an hour and well introduce you to everybody. Savvy?" Josh said.

Dustin and Lola nodded. "Savvy," Dustin said.

-CBTD-

"Tyler," Wednesday said. "This is Dustin and Lola Ride. We met them at The Grayson's."

"Nice to meet you," Tyler said. "Wednesday, Josh, and Greg talk about you too."

"Nice to meet you too sir," Lola said. Dustin nodded in agreement.

"Please don't call me sir," Tyler said with a friendly smile that the two Rides were unused to seeing coming from an adult. "It makes me feel too old."

"Okay," Dustin said with a small smile. Tyler seemed like an alright dude.

"When are you starting school?" Wednesday asked.

"Monday," Lola replied.

"Cool. Our school is kindergarten through 12th grade so if you go to our school we'll see you," Wednesday said.

"Do you go to the big red brick one down that's that way?" Dustin asked pointing.

Wednesday and her brothers nodded. "Sultan K-12th," Josh said. Dustin and Lola nodded.

"Cool. So we'll see you at school too," Greg said.

-CBTD-

"Hey Wednesday," Mike said when he sat next to Wednesday at lunch. On the other side was a teenage boy that Mike was unfamiliar with. The events from last week were still fresh on his mind, but Wednesday was right. It was a delinquency home and there was nothing they could do about it.

"Hi Mike," Wednesday said. "Have a good weekend?"

Mike nodded. "Who's your friend, Spif?" the teenage boy asked.

"This is Mike Baker," Wednesday said. "We were best friends before I got sent to the Grayson's. I hope we're still best friends, but Mike might have gotten new friends." Wednesday glanced at Mike as she spoke.

"No," he said. "I've just been waiting on you for the past two years."

Wednesday smiled at him and for some odd reason Mike got the butterflies. "This is Dustin Ride," Wednesday said. "I met him at the GHUY."

"Nice to meet you," Mike said to the older boy.

"Ditto," Dustin said. He then turned to Wednesday. "Lola and me were going to get some spray paint and mess up our lawn before we have to mow. You want to bring the guys and come? You can bring Mike too if you wanna," he said. "Just no grown-ups," he reminded her.

"I savvy. You've told me a million times to never bring grown-ups on stuff like that. Heck, I knew that before you even told me," Wednesday said.

Dustin grinned and ruffled Wednesday's hair like an older sibling would to a younger sibling. "That's Spitfire alright," he said with a chuckle.

"You want to come, Mike?" Wednesday asked.

"Sure," Mike said, taking a slurp out of his water bottle.

-CBTD-

After school Josh, Greg, Wednesday, and Mike dropped their backpacks off at home and went to the Ride's house.

"Catch Spif," Lola said and tossed Wednesday two cans of spray paint. Wednesday handed one to Mike and popped the cap off.

"Your parents cool with this?" Greg asked.

"They can't say no if we don't ask," Dustin said. He and Lola grinned at each other.

Mike felt kind of funny and Wednesday must have noticed. "Don't worry about it Mike," she said. "We've done stuff like this before. Mr. Ride is cool with it since most of it come off when we mow and stuff. Mrs. Ride isn't too fond of it, but she can't get too mad since we clean it up."

Mike felt better so he started spraying a design onto the grass. In an hour the yard was a mess of colors, patterns, and designs. The kids grinned at their work before they started.

Dustin and Josh mowed while the others picked up all the empty cans of spray paint. Once the two teenagers finished mowing Lola and Wednesday took two cans of green spray paint that they had saved and sprayed it over the patches of grass that all of the color hadn't quite come off of. While they were doing that Greg and Mike pulled up the colorful weeds and the kids had finished cleaning the lawn in no time.

"Thanks kids," Mr. Ride said.

"No problem," Josh said with a grin.

As they walked away they could hear him laughing about how you could get great lawn care for the price of a couple of cans of spray paint.

**This was kind of just a pointless little chapter, but I think it was alright. If anyone has an ideas just review or PM me because I have no clue what I'm going to do next.**


	14. It's All Jenny's Fault

**Lola Ride: That's alright. Cool that you got a dog. I have a dog and she's shaped like a barrel with feet. Nothing really happened to my ribs. I just gave myself a huge bruise by accidently slamming a car door on myself (I have no clue how I managed to do that, but I did) but they're all better now. **

**IT'S YOU! YOU'RE DUSTIN'S SISTER! That's kind of funny, but I bet that if you hit yourself in the head too hard with scissors it would hurt. And you're welcome. I thought it would be cool with you in it. And thanks.**

**YES HE DOES! He just doesn't know it yet. You're like twelve or thirteen in this story. And I haven't decided if you have any other siblings. Do you want any other siblings?**

**I LOVE the Dukes of Hazzard and Maximum Ride and I don't take offense in that. I used to think it was annoying, but then I didn't have anything to read and I was super bored and Twilight was all I could find so… I've seen the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and I read the books. NEVER BE SORRY FOR RANDOM REVIEWS!**

**Chapter 14**

Billy smiled. He had finally gotten himself a job, and it wasn't too bad of a job either. He worked at a grocery store half the day and then for the other half he went to college online. It was kind of weird that he was eighteen and lived with his older brother, but Billy helped pay for stuff whenever he had the money. His grades in college were pretty good. Once he got his degree he would get a full time job and move out once he had enough money. Lindsey had a full time job and went to college online in the evenings and at night and she managed to afford an apartment.

"Billy," Tyler said. "I've got a meeting at work tomorrow so I have to get there early. Can you make sure that the kids eat breakfast, get to school, and don't blow up the house?"

"Yeah, I can do that," Billy said.

So the next morning he was up early to help make breakfast, make sure everyone had their homework and textbooks, and got out the door in time to walk to school. Once everyone was gone he headed out the door to work.

"Hey Billy," another employee, Jenny, said.

"Hey Jenny," Billy greeted. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," Jenny said. "How's that big family of yours?"

"We're fine. Tyler's got some big meeting today so I had to get the troops to school. I don't see how he can do it every day," Billy said with a chuckle as he started stacking cans.

"Billy, I've got tickets to a movie on Saturday. You want hit a restraint for dinner then go see the movie with me?" Jenny asked.

"Sure," Billy said with a grin as he lifted the crate and moved it to stack cans somewhere else even though his mind was far away. He had a date Saturday. It was really too bad that he didn't remember that he had promised to play hockey with Wednesday.

**CBTD**

"Billy, are we still on to play hockey?" Wednesday asked.

"Can't," Billy said briefly. "I've got a date. Sorry kiddo"

"Okay," Wednesday said. She walked away then so Billy wouldn't see her scowl. She knew this would happen eventually, but she had only been home for a few weeks. Once Billy moved out he wouldn't have any time for any of his siblings, especially not a nine year old. She kept herself from punching the wall, she had already split her knuckles when she fell out of tree and ended up rolling down a hill which was pretty embarrassing and other than the painful part kind of fun.

"What's the matter?" Penny asked.

"Nothing," Wednesday grumbled. With a sigh Wednesday went outside and grabbed her skateboard. She kicked off hard and sighed again as the concrete quickly disappeared beneath her. Ever since she was little Billy had always had time for her. She didn't expect him to spend every minute of every day with her, but they literally hadn't played hockey together for years and she was really wishing they could.

Stepping off her board and going up to the Baker's front door Wednesday rang the doorbell which was answered by Sarah.

"Hey," Wednesday greeted. "Are Mike and Jake around?"

Sarah nodded and opened the door wider for Wednesday to come in. Wednesday went upstairs towards Mike and Jake's rooms. "You want to go do something?" The boys nodded their heads then shoved their feet into shoes. Grabbing their skateboards the threesome speed down the street, just enjoying each other's company.

"So what's up?" Jake asked as they climbed into the tree they had sat in the tree they had sat in when Wednesday had first come back from GDHUY.

"The sky," Wednesday said seriously. Mike grinned and Jake took a playful swipe at her head which Wednesday ducked under.

"You know what I mean," Jake said. Wednesday sighed.

"Billy's grown up," she said.

"What do you mean?" Mike asked. "He's been eighteen for months."

"Not like that," Wednesday said shaking her head. "He promised me that he would play hockey today. But he blew me off for a date."

"Well…" Jake said. "Maybe he'll play hockey with you when he gets back."

Wednesday shook her head. "It's probably going to be dinner and a movie followed by a slow drive home," she grumbled. "But even if he did it's not the point. He blew me off for some girl." Mike and Jake could see that this had really hurt Wednesday. From what they knew of the siblings, Billy had always been there for his little sister. It had to be tough with him suddenly ditching her.

"We'll play hockey with you," Mike offered. "Come on, let's go get our stuff."

Wednesday grinned at her friend as they sprinted to their houses and grabbed pads and skates. "Us against Jake?" Wednesday asked. Mike nodded and their game began.

**CBTD**

"Mike, Jake, look out!" Wednesday shouted. She grabbed her friends' arms and with a yank the three tumbled onto the concrete. Mike's jaw hit the curb and Wednesday's arm bent unnaturally beneath her and Jake landed hard on his back. The bus that had rapidly sped into the neighborhood continued on its way, ignoring the three children it had nearly crushed.

"Are you guys okay?" Jake demanded once he managed to regain his breath.

"No," Wednesday moaned, clutching her arm to her chest. Mike didn't speak, but the look in his eyes and the blood that was beginning to drip was answer enough.

"Stay right here," Jake said, stripping off his skates so he could run through the grass to get to his house faster. "I'll be right back." He ran towards his house.

"Mom!" he shouted once he got into his house. "Mom!"

"What is it, honey?" Kate said coming around the corner. "Is someone hurt?"

"We were playing hockey in the street and a bus came around the corner and Wednesday yanked Mike out of the way, but they fell over and hit the curb and now they're hurt," Jake rambled.

"Oh Lord," Kate mumbled as she grabbed her keys and dashed out the door, following Jake to the two children. Once she got the two of them to the hospital she pulled out her cell phone to call Tyler.

**CBTD**

"What happened?" Billy asked once he got home and saw Wednesday sitting on the couch with her arm in a cast from her bicep to her fingers with her elbow bent.

"Oh nothing much," Wednesday said sarcastically. "Since you bailed on my for hockey Mike and Jake played with me until we nearly got run over by a bus and I broke my arm in three places and Mike broke his jaw."

"Wednesday," Billy started in a lecturing tone. "You know to be more careful than that when you're playing in the street."

"It's my fault?" Wednesday demanded as she leapt to her feet. "Excuse me for getting my friends out of the way of a bus that was speeding in a neighborhood with a 'children at play' sign." Wednesday stormed to her room and slammed the door.

Billy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He knew he shouldn't have bailed on Wednesday, but Jenny was so nice… and she smelt like shampoo. But Wednesday was his sister and he had made a promise… which he had broken even more than Wednesday's arm was broken.

Around eleven Penny heard a soft knock at her door. Wednesday was standing there with a helpless puppy look on her face. "I can't get out of my clothes," she said. "Can you help me?"

Penny went to her sister's room and helped her get into pajamas. "Billy didn't mean to ditch you," she said.

"I know," Wednesday admitted. "It's just- he's eighteen and I'm nine. He's bigger than me and stronger than me and better than me at everything. What if he thinks that I'm too little for him to hang out with now?"

"Billy would never think that," Penny said. "He just made a mistake and he's not good with girls. He's really sorry that he didn't play with you and that you nearly got ran over by a bus and that your arm is broken."

"Thanks Penny," Wednesday said quietly after a silence. "I needed that."

"Anytime," Penny said. "I'll help you get your clothes on in the morning too," she said as she slipped out the door.

Wednesday smiled slightly as she wiggled into her bed and turned out the lights. How boring would life be if she was an only child?


	15. Nice Hair

**Lola Ride: Billy just kind of clueless. Some guys are kind of like that when they're not good with girls. Maybe your brother will start coming over more often. Whenever it's my birthday I just have a few friends over and my dad and brother go out of town. And if you write down everything then your big sister won't miss any memories. I'm not really sure how I came up with the Swords. I just wanted to write a fanfiction where there is a family with more kids than the Bakers and then BOOM! The Swords happened. CONGRADULATIONS! THIS IS THE LONGEST REVIEW THAT I HAVE GOTTEN FOR THIS STORY! Does your sister have an account on fanfiction? And with your siblings, who knows? I might even base a character of myself and put her into the story as your sister. My favorite character is probably Bo just because he's funny. And the Bakers have Gunner, the Swords don't have any pets as of now but that could always change, and I'm not sure about the Rides. Should they? I WILL NEVER TAKE BA WHAT I SAY UNLESS IT TAKES ME OVER AN HOUR TO READ A REVIEW!**

**You're welcome and Dustin is older than you. I try to update as often as I can but sometimes I don't have time to type the whole chapter and other times I'm just '0.0' I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT!**

**P.S. This is now two hundred and fifty two words.**

**Chapter 15**

"Hey Wednesday," Jake said as he and Mike entered the Swords' house.

"Hey Jake, hey Mike," Wednesday said, looking up from the legos she was awkwardly building with. "I'm going crazy. I can't do anything with this." She gestured to the huge cast with a scowl. "I can't play sports, I can't climb trees, I can't draw or write and barely read, I can barely play with legos, and I can't play piano."

"You play piano?" Jake said.

Wednesday nodded. "It was mandatory to learn to play an instrument at GDHUY," she said with a shrug. "So I learned a few." Wednesday turned to Mike. "How's your jaw?" she asked.

"Kind of better," Mike said. "The doctor gave me some pain pills, but I talk funny."

"You're talking fine," Wednesday assured him. "Sorry that I made you hit the curb like that," she apologized.

"A broken jaw is pretty small in comparison to being under a bus," Mike said. "We owe you big time."

Just then an ice cream truck entered the neighborhood. Wednesday dug through her pockets and pulled out some change. "You can make it up to me by loaning me a quarter," she said.

Jake laughed as he and Mike found two dimes and a nickel in their pockets and handed them over to Wednesday who ran to chase down the ice cream truck. A few minutes later she returned nibbling a cone.

"Can I have some?" Josh asked he entered the room.

"MIIIIIIIIIIINE!" Wednesday yelled. Josh laughed and left the room. Jake shook his head at the little girl.

"So, need any help with the legos?" he asked. Wednesday nodded.

"I can't get all of the pieces together with one hand," Wednesday said. She sat down next to the half-finished castle. "Can you put this piece here?" Wednesday asked Jake, handing him a piece and pointing to where it should go. Jake easily snapped the piece into place and waited from his next instruction.

They kept playing like this for an hour and a half before Tyler got home. "Hey Jake, Mike," he greeted as he slid out of his shoes. "You want to call your parents and see if you can stay for supper? We're having pizza."

"Wish we could Tyler, but Mike's on a soft food diet until his jaw heals," Jake said. "We should probably be getting home now."

"See you," Wednesday said as she put the pieces they hadn't used yet into a zip lock bag and put the castle to where it wouldn't be stepped on or knocked over by someone.

**CBTD**

"How can I make up ditching you?" Billy asked.

Wednesday was quiet for a minute. "Well we can't play hockey because my arm is broken, but I've got another idea." Wednesday pulled Billy by the arm up the stairs to her room. She took some old newspapers and spread them on the floor. "Sit," she instructed and Billy didn't dare disobey.

"This is not my idea of fun," Billy said five minutes later. He raised a hand to his hair which Wednesday slapped.

"No touchy," she said as she used her good hand to spread more glitter glue in his hair. She squeezed the glitter glue once more before she reached for her finger paints which she was keeping in a shoe box that was behind Billy so he wouldn't see. A half hour later she had used the glitter glue, finger paints, scented markers, mud, sharpies, and a little bit of pickle juice and let it all dry she handed Billy a mirror.

He nearly screamed.

Tyler chose that moment to come into Wednesday room and when he saw Billy's hair he nearly died laughing. Billy's face turned bright red and he ran to the bathroom to take a shower. Even after shampooing four times his hair was still colorful and shiny. He came out grumbling unhappily and Wednesday grinned.

"I did a little research on my special markers, finger paints, and glitter glue which are guaranteed to stay bright and colorful. They should wash out in about six weeks," Wednesday said with a grin, "which, coincidentally, is the same amount of time it will take for my cast to come off."

Billy grumbled and headed to her room while his siblings stood laughing in the hallway.

**Sorry for the shortness and semi pointlessness. **


	16. This Is Why You Don't Slam Doors

**Lola Ride: Sorry I took so long to update. I was totally brain dead about what to write about for a long time and when I finally got an idea it was for an original story that I'm working on. DOESN'T WRITERS' BLOCK SUCK? (Hint, it does.) **

**Hmm… I kind of picture character you blonde I guess. THANK YOU! I work very hard at being awesome. And yeah, I am out of school. I've been out of school since the 27****th**** of May. Which is good since I hate school. Well, I used to really like school, but then this year all of my teacher were EVIL, the music teacher (who is super evil and everyone hates) decided she loved me just because I can read notes and stuff and hardly anyone else can which made the other kids in my music class not like me, a guy in my class starting making fun of me all the time (apparently my nicknames are the little emo, the little cutter, the pale kid, and the goth kid. He's not very good at names.).**

**Yeah… Wednesday awesome like that. I say awesome a lot too. Not sure why though. Ooohhh… that's cool. I asked my mom if I could do that sometime and she made me go outside and hoe the garden instead. **

**IT IS A MILLION DEGREED HERE! The lowest temperature we're going to have all month here is 89 during thunder storms. I hate storms. I used to love storms because they were loud and exciting mostly just because it was one more thing that make me the black sheep which I like because I don't like being what most people consider 'normal', but then tornadoes, yada yada yada, and BOOM. I no longer like storms. **

**Chapter Sixteen**

"What happened to your hair?" Jenny demanded as she laughed. Billy rubbed his head self-consciously.

"I accidently blew Wednesday off for something I promised to do with her for our date. She and two of her friends nearly got hit by a bus and her arms broke. Wednesday got to choose how I made it up to her," he said.

"I don't see why," Jenny said.

"Well it wouldn't have happened if I kept my promise," Billy said with a shrug as he grabbed a box full of cans and began stacking. Was it just in his head or did Jenny sound kind of mean?

"She's ten," Jenny said with a snort. "It's not life you have to answer to her or anything." Billy scowled.

"She's nine and she's my sister. I broke a promise and she got hurt because of it," Billy said. Granted, he hadn't known that would happen, but with different players everyone would have been in a different place and would have had plenty of time to see the bus.

Jenny flipped her hair. "I don't see why you put up with all the brats and let them tag along. If I was in your shoes they would all know not to even ask me to do anything with them."

"We're a family and I care about them," Billy said. He stopped putting the cans up and turned to look at the teenager he had considered one of his best friends.

Jenny rolled her eyes. "Don't be so stupid," she said.

Billy had angrily gone to stack cans somewhere else and he was still fuming when he got home. How dare she say that? They were his family and none of them were brats. They had made more sacrifices than they should have to and they did it with a brave face and a kind heart. That was more than most people could say.

**CBTD**

"Hey Josh," Sarah said to her scowling friend. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing," he said. "Billy just came home all mad and it kind of affected the whole household." He got a curious look from Sarah so he continued. "He was mad so he slammed the door and a picture fell of the wall and landed on one of the twin's paintings which was still wet so it ruined the frame and the painting so the twins started to scream and Tyler had been sleeping and he was half awake and tried to go downstairs to see what was wrong and fell down stair and hit the bathroom door which came open and Hannah started yelling at everyone and Jessie, Jackson, and Andrew all tried to some down the stairs to see what was wrong at the same time and Jessie got thrown over the bannister and she landed on Penny's history project which was totally ruined and Penny threw what was left of her popsicle sticks into the air and they hit the ceiling fan and Lindsey was just walking in the door and she got hit in the eye and she started staggering around shouting and she accidently tipped Greg's chair over and he and the chair landed on Sean's foot and he jumped backwards and stepped on Wednesday's hand and she was trying to pull her hand out from under his foot and when she finally got free she fell over and knocked my dinner everywhere."

Sarah stared with her mouth hanging open slightly as Josh continued the run on sentence. "Remind me never to slam a door at you house," she said.

Josh chuckled a little. "I guess it would have seemed a little bit funny somebody was just watching," he said. His chuckle grew and despite his attempts to smother it the two soon sat laughing until they cried.

**Kind of short and pointless, my apologies. Somebody please send me some ideas!**


	17. Camping

**Lola Ride HI! Oops. I guess that was pretty far off. GO PEOPLE WITH BROWN HAIR! :D Anything can happen on a camping trip… One time I went camping and** **saw a bear and named him *drumroll* KALVIN! And there's a picture of me and I'm wearing a baggy shirt and swim shorts and my hair is in a ponytail and I look like a dude! It's weird. We rode around in lawn chairs in the back of my dad's truck and this one guy was looking at us like 'HILLBILLIES!' and I was thinking 'WE'RE REDNECKS NOT HILLBILLIES! GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!' If you're going to be such a city slicker about seeing kids in the bed of a truck don't go on an auto tour. **

**Chapter 17**

Excited kids streamed from Sultan K-12th, chattering about summer plans. Neither the Bakers nor the Swords currently had any plans, but they were just as excited as the other kids. In the summer they had more time to hang out and have fun.

Tyler had told the kids that to go over to the Bakers after school so the twelve baker kids and nine of the Sword kids went to the Baker's house and saw Tyler and Mr. and Mrs. Baker talking.

"Hey kids," Tyler said. "You guys want to go on vacation?" The kids nodded and looked at their parents curiously.

"Well," Tom said. "We'll need everyone to pitch in to round up enough tents and money for gas, but we should be able to go camping for a weekend." He set a jar on the counter top. "Put spare change and dollars in here and this can be our gas money." The kids surged forward and wrestled to jam in their pocket change and spare dollars. Tyler and Tom looked at each other a grinned.

-CBTD-

In Tyler's truck Anna, Suzy, Penny, Wednesday, Greg, and Sean were squeezed in along with their supplies in the bed of the truck and some beneath their feet. Tom and Kate were driving all of the Bakers except Charlie and Lorraine. Charlie was driving Lorraine, Jackson, Andrew, Josh, Jessie, and Hannah. Lindsey and Billy road in Lindsey's car with a bunch of supplies in the trunk and backseat.

After a very cramped ride the kids got to their campsite. Working quickly, the older kids began setting up tents and the younger began pulling out bags of clothes and supplies. A man from a different campsite tapped Tom on the shoulder.

"Are all these yours?" he asked.

"Well twelve are mine and thirteen are his," Tom said. The stranger's eyes bugged out.

"If you don't mind me asking, how old were you for the first one?" he asked Tyler.

"Six," Tyler said. He let the stranger freak out for a minute. "They're my siblings. I'm just their legal guardian." The stranger calmed down.

"How do you get them all to set up camp so fast?" he asked.

"We have a system for that," Tom said. The three adults grinned. "Nobody goes to the bathroom until camp is set up."

-CBTD-

"So what hike are we going on?" Lorraine asked. Tom and Tyler had been going over a book looking for one that everyone would enjoy.

"This one," Tyler said, pointing at a page in the book.

"Where does it go to?" Jake asked, leaning over to get a glimpse of the book. Tyler pulled it away.

"It's a surprise," he said. "But I'll tell you this. The trail goes to its main destination then it's about twenty minutes to the parking lot."

So the large group hiked for nearly an hour in a single file line, taking a few breaks for the two sets of twins. "Whoa," Jake said when they got there. It was a water fall, probably about fourteen meters high. The water flowed down the mountain and rocks stuck up. Grinning, the kids stripped of their socks and shoes and rolled up their pant legs before running into the water gleefully.

Cupping her hands, Wednesday splashed Mike. Mike splashed back, but slipped on a rock and toppled over, taking Wednesday down with him. Sitting in the cool water everyone was quiet for a minute. Then, without bothering to disguise it, they busted out laughing.

An hour and a half later they went back to the parking lot. Everyone went to the bathroom in a small gift shop before they found a place to just play in the creek. A dead tree had fallen across the water and several rocks stuck up. The kids would jump from rock to rock or just walk through the water.

Once the sun started sinking beyond the horizon the two families stopped to buy firewood then went back to the camp site. Tyler, Tom, Charlie, and Billy built up fires while Kate found the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. Everyone else searched the area for stick long enough to roast the marshmallows on.

Everyone was laughing, talking, smiling giggling, and someone started up a round of 'there once was a man named Michael Finnegan.' By 10:30 Suzy, Anna, Nigel, and Kyle were asleep and some of the younger kids were soon to follow. With a little help from Tom, Kate, and Tyler everyone was into their tent and curled up under blankets.

"Night Tyler," Wednesday whispered through a yawn.

"Night Wednesday," he said, zipping the tent as he went out.

**So how was it?**


	18. W Disease?

**Lola Ride HELLO! My family's pretty country-ish and kind of redneck. But lots of people where I live are kind of redneck so it's all good!** **:) YOU'VE NEVER BEEN CAMPING? *Gasp* I love camping even if you do have to pee in a bush sometimes. *Regrets saying that but is too stubborn to press the backspace button* You should go some time. I like horses. My cousin and cousin in-law sell horses, so I like horses, but they live four hours away from where I live so I don't see them that often. I have seen Good Luck Charlie. THANK YOU!**

**I have seen Teen Titans and Avatar, but not the other show.**

**And to the person who I can't type their name without getting distracted who asked where Nora was she has a job and a kid and a husband and stuff so she couldn't come. **

**Chapter 18**

"Turkey!"

"Bacon!"

"Lettuce!"

"Avocado!"

"What are you doing?" Tyler finally asked Wednesday and Greg.

"You have the W Disease!" Wednesday said.

"What's that?" Sean asked.

"Now you gave it to him too!" Greg howled.

"What is wrong with them?" Penny demanded of her oldest brother who had one eye on the road and the other watching in bewilderment as his younger siblings confused everyone.

"And Penny as well?" Greg said. "Why cruel world?"

Tyler had an idea and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Sean who was riding in the passenger seat. "Text Mr. Baker and ask him if he knows what they're doing," he instructed. Sean did as he said and a few moments later the phone went _boop bop _and Sean read the text.

_It's a game kids do when they get bored. Whoever says 'what' has the W disease. They're just bored. _

Sean relayed the Message to Tyler who told him to give them some video games or something. Soon Wednesday and Greg were hypnotically playing Mario Kart and Tyler had seen text his thanks back to Tom.

Once they got back to their houses everyone dashed in to put their stuff away before racing towards a bathroom. Tyler chuckled and took his time unloading his things. The Sword kids disappeared to go about their usual activities and Tyler went back to work after a little while.

**CBTD**

Wednesday, Mike, Jake, Josh, and Sarah sat on the concrete with the remainders of a watermelon sitting behind them. Each held a slice and would take a bite and carefully find all of the seeds before proceeding to see who could spit them farthest.

"We should have a prank war," Sarah said randomly after she polished off her slice and spat the last seed. The other kids grinned at the idea then scurried into the house to make preparations.

"We'll have teams of twelve," Sarah decided. "Nora isn't around enough and Tyler works too much to participate."

"Well, there are five of us so we need seven more," Jake said.

"We'll want Nigel, Kyle, Sean, and Greg," Mike said.

"How about Billy, Charlie, and Jessie too?" Josh contributed. Sarah nodded.

"Find them and tell them what we're doing," she said. "We'll meet on the Sword's roof at eight o'clock tonight." The five of them nodded and scattered to gather their troops.

**CBTD**

"What's the plan?" Nigel asked as the twelve kids gathered on the roof.

"We're going to break up into teams. Nigel, Kyle, Jake, and Billy you take Jessica, Kim, Andrew and Lindsey. Sean, Greg, Josh, Jessie, and I will take Henry, Lorraine, Suzy, and Anna. Wednesday, Mike, and Charlie take Mark, Penny, and Jackson. Plan your pranks and the war begins at noon exactly tomorrow."

The teams split up and went to plan their pranks. The others couldn't figure out what they were doing, but Tyler had spotted Josh with a water balloon full of old milk and cottage cheese so he kept his distance.

When the clock struck twelve the next day chaos broke lose. Jessica, Kim, Andrew and Lindsey each found themselves eating sandwiches which had been made with kitty litter and frozen grapes. Henry, Lorraine, Suzy and Anna were separately pelted with the strange balloons Tyler had seen Josh with. Mark, Penny, and Jackson accidently used pink hair dye for shampoo.

"This means war!" Lindsey declared. The prankers laughed gleefully and tore out of sight to plan their defense and next prank.

A counter attack was launched and the prankers became the prankees as they were pelted with globs of jelly. Soon after Penny's butt was glued to a toilet seat before the first team, who had dubbed themselves the Knights of Awesome, had buckets of water dumped on them from upstairs windows. The League of Epicness was fed glue sticks at dinner before there was a temporary time out.

"I want no part of this," Tyler said. "You can prank each other silly, but nobody gets hurt and you cannot come to me for anything. Deal?" The kids had nodded eagerly and meals had been hustled down before KAs and LEs rushed to their fortresses to plan and left a laughing Tyler to finish his meal alone.

The next day several people in the neighborhood sat outside to watch what they could see of the prank war from their front porches. It was a brutal battle and silly string, food coloring, laxatives, stink bombs, turtles, grape Kool-Aid, band aids, raggedy Anne colored hair dye, and Santa Claus. By the end it was quite easy to tell the Knights of Awesome from members of the League of Epicness. Knights of Awesome had bright red hair and silly string stuck to their clothes. Members of the League of Epicness had hot pink hair and would have to run to the bathroom every so often.

It was a battle the neighborhood wouldn't soon forget.


	19. Your BOYFRIEND!

**I'm sorry for not updating for FOREVER, but I had two problems. First I had writers block out the wazoo and second, my cable keeps going out so I couldn't get online.**

**Lola Ride I know! I love pranks. That sounds epic. I LOVE EGGNOG! IT'S SO CHRISTMASY. COOL! Somewhere I have the second one but I think it got lost. My mom bought it for me like a year or two ago when the movie rental place went out of business. *Blows one of those party things* HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hmm… I'm not sure. Maybe Robin? THANK YOU! **

**:D Haha. My brother and I each have some close friends so I treat his friends like my brothers and he treats my friends like his sisters… meaning he attempts to embarrass us in public, insults us, and throws stuff at us if we go into his room. Oh teenagers. So anyways some my brain just considers his friends, my friends, my cousins, and the kids of my dad's old friends my siblings whenever we're in the same place. But luckily and unluckily we're not actually siblings cuz then there would be like thirty of us which would not fit in our house. And no, I haven't seen that movie.**

**Chapter 19**

"Whoa!" Dustin said. "What did ya'll do to your hair?"

Mike, Sean, Greg, and Wednesday each ruffled their hair self-consciously. "I think it's a good look for us," Wednesday muttered. The others chuckled and Sean told the story of the prank war.

"Why didn't you invite us?" Lola said. Sean laughed.

"It was kind of a spur of the moment thing," he said. Then he added seriously, "And red is so not you're color."

"And there are two of you so one of you would have been on the LEs' team which would have meant you would have had laxatives in your food. Do you really want that?" Greg said.

"You guys want to go swimming?" Dustin asked, changing the subject.

"Sure," Wednesday said. They went to get their swim suits while Dustin and Lola changed into theirs.

Wednesday cannonballed into the Rides' pool once they got into their backyard, relieved to be out of the heat. Then she seized Mike by the ankles and yanked him in. They surfaced laughing and the others jumped in.

To hours later they were sitting out of the pool, wrapped in towels and nearly dry. There was an odd noise and water sprayed out at them. The kids squinted their eyes and hid behind towels until the water stopped. There was a laugh and a teenager who looked about the same age as Jessie.

"What's your problem, Drake?" Lola shouted. The teenager didn't answer and disappeared inside the house.

"Who was that?" Mike asked.

"Our stupid cousin, Drake Quincunx," Dustin grumbled. "He's staying with us for another week while his parents are in Florida and he's a jerk. He poured soda on the computer monitor."

"He put charcoal in my chocolate milk," Lola contributed.

The unnatural redheads glanced at each other and a grin flickered at their features. "It may be too late for you to join in our prank war…" Mike said.

"But it's not too late for a prank on your dear cousin," Wednesday finished with a sly grin.

CBTD

Drake sat in front of the TV on his gaming chair, a game controller clenched in between his slim hands. His shoulders lurched forwards and explosion sounded every time he jammed one of the buttons on the controller. Wednesday, Mike, and Lola stood at the railing of the second floor of the house. Dustin, Sean, and Greg stood at the stairs, holding several text books.

Wednesday held up three fingers then dropped them one at a time before sticking the hand she had used to get a water balloon out of the bucket. The three pelted him with all of the water balloons. Once they were out Lola grabbed the bucket and dumped it over his head.

"What the heck?" he shouted. Then he looked up.

Dustin, Sean, and Greg through the books down the stairs as Drake headed towards them, trying to dash upstairs but only succeeding in falling back down. The Rides, Swords, and Baker ran through the house, sprinting through the house. Wednesday and Mike grabbed their repealing gear and each repealed out of separate window in Lola's room. The others leapt out of the window in Dustin's room, landing on the trampoline, before meeting up with the younger two and fleeing into the street.

"I'm going to kill you," Drake roared as he ran into the street, dirty blonde hair sticking to his face and fist clenched around a baseball bat.

"Go to my house," Wednesday hissed. "If Billy's home we can get rid of him. But the only person I know for a fact is there is Jessie." Deciding to take the chance they tore down the street towards the Swords house.

"Jeeeeeesssssiiiiieeeeee!" Wednesday screamed as they got closer. Hearing her, Jessie quickly jammed her feet into her shoes and sprinted out onto the front porch.

"Help!" Greg shouted, pointing at Drake as they ran.

"What did you do?" Jessie said, taking her time going down the steps as the kids kept running.

"Is Billy home?" Sean shouted.

"No, he's at work," Jessie said, moseying towards them.

"Well would you mind walking a little faster?" Greg shouted.

"Just calm down," Jessie said as she came in between the younger six and Drake. She saw the angry look and his wet hair and clothes and turned the kids who were slowly edging towards the house.

"What did you do to my boyfriend?"

**A.N. The author cannot be held responsible for any injuries obtained while trying to exit a house how Sean, Greg, Wednesday, Lola, Dustin, and Mike did.**


	20. Storms and Pinecones

**Lola Ride *Singing* It's a small world after all! THANK YOU! Do you mean in the story or in actually? Cuz right now I'm behind a keyboard. Just kidding. One time on April Fool's Day my mom and I sewed the leg holes on my dad's underpants closed. It was funny.** **I don't really know what moshi monsters is. Yeah I've seen it before. My brother watches it a lot so sometimes I get kind of sick of it. **

**Have you ever been on one of those crazy photo scavenger hunts? I went on one with my friend and her church group at a church lock-in. We didn't have a lot of time and I was wet from jumping into a fountain for a picture so I wasn't wearing any shoes so I was running around in a store barefoot wearing a burger king crown. I… LOVED IT! I love church lock ins even though its immensely awkward when there's one girl who had a huge crush on this guy and the guy says "I like somebody in this room," during the movie and my friend went "*****my name here*" ****and he went "Crap" and then the next day we were walking out of the bathroom and he had all done the superman prayer the day before (Thank you, God for giving us food, thank you God for giving us food, for the friends we meet and the food we eat, thank you God for giving us food) and the guy was singing 'Thank you God for giving us *****my name* ****and it was a bit awkward, but he's nice so…**

**Chapter 20**

"Hey Sarah," Josh said.

"Hey Josh," Sarah responded. "Did you guys get in any trouble for water ballooning Jessie's boyfriend?" Josh chuckled

"Mike told you about that?" Sarah nodded. "No, we didn't, but we were forced by Jessie to play board games with him for two hours to prove we could get along with him. Sarah winced.

"That sounds like torture," she said.

"Not really," Josh said, smiling. "Wednesday got bored so in between turns she started talking to him about Santa. He tried to say that Santa wasn't real, but we'd whack him with a pillow before the words got out."

Sarah laughed at the image. "Hey, do you want to go to the movies tonight?" she asked.

"Sure," Josh agreed eagerly.

**CBTD**

Josh and Sarah met at the movie theater. Josh got tickets while Sarah went for popcorn.

"What are we seeing?" Sarah asked.

"X-Men First Class," Josh said. **(A.N. I know that has been off at most theaters for a long time, but where I live there's a dollar theater and it's still on there.) ** "I remembered you and Jake watching X-Men last week."

"Sounds great," Sarah said with a grin as she handed him popcorn.

After the movie Josh and Sarah walked home. It was still light out for another hour and a half so Wednesday and Mike were outside hanging out of a tree upside down.

"Luuuuuuv birds," Wednesday crooned. Josh responded by knocking his sister out of the tree with a pine cone.

"Ow…" Wednesday said, rubbing her rear end. "That hurt!"

Josh laid a hand on his chest in mock shock. "It did! Oh my poor, dear little sister! Would you like me to kiss it better?"

Wednesday scowled and tossed the pinecone back to her brother, nearly bringing him to his knees when the pinecone hit him in a very bad place. Immediately, Wednesday ran towards the house, scrambling up the steps and through the front door with Mike on her heels.

"They were smart to run," Josh muttered once they were in the house. Sarah smiled.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow I guess," she said. Josh smiled and nodded at her before going into his house.

"So what did you kids do today?" Tyler asked over dinner.

"Josh went on a date," Wednesday said.

Tyler cocked an eyebrow. "Did he now?" he asked.

"It wasn't a date," Josh said. "I just went to a movie with Sarah."

"And you walked home holding hands," Suzy said, smiling at the memory of what she had seen out her window.

"Sounds like a date to me," Tyler said. Josh's ears went pink slightly, but Suzy wasn't done talking yet.

"Then he knocked Wednesday out of the tree with a pinecone so she threw the pinecone and hit him with it and ran away," she said.

"Josh, you know better than to throw things at your siblings while there in a tree," Tyler said in a lecturing tone. "What would have happened if she'd landed on her head?"

"She'd be dead?" Josh guessed.

"Exactly," Tyler said. "So only throw things at each other when you're within three feet of the ground."

"You drive a hard bargain, but deal," Josh joked.

"Oh, just eat your potatoes," Tyler said, laughing slightly.

"It going to storm tonight," Lindsey said, changing the subject.

Tyler nodded. "Remember to get your bikes and stuff out of the yard after supper." After everyone ate fourteen bodies left the house, bringing in bikes, hockey gear, wagons, jump ropes, and a kite while Lindsey, Billy, and Tyler brought the mail and garbage cans into the garage.

Lightning flashed and rain poured during the night. The kids were curled in their beds with books or video games on their laps once the storm became too loud to sleep. A quiet dripping noise in some of the rooms as water dripped into the pot or bowl that had been placed under the leak signified that the roof might be missing a few shingles. Finally, the kids just gathered in the living room to play games. Twister, Candyland, and three checker boards were spread across the floor, keeping the kids entertained until the storm stopped. Everyone crawled into bed and everyone who didn't have a job slept in an extra hour the next morning.

"The roofs missing some shingles," Jessie observed. "And several of the rooms are leaking."

"There's water damage in the upstairs bathroom," Josh informed her.

"There's a tree split," Jackson said. "It most have gotten struck by lightning."


	21. I've Got NOTHING!

**Lola Ride Since there were two reviews I'm going to respond to them by order.**

**THE FIRST ONE THAT STARTS WITH TALKING ABOUT MAXIMUM RIDE Epic! I was in third grade and read one hundred and eighty chapters and the kids were looking at me so weird! My favorite characters would be**

**Iggy**

**Gazzy**

**Angel**

**Max**

**Dylan (he grew on me in Angel)**

**Nudge**

**Fang**

**Couples would be Max & Iggy (obviously) and I'm not really sure about anyone else. I'm not really sure who I'd be most like. What do you think? I'd love to have wings, but I would hate the school and everything. My school reminds me of prison. :/ I'm finishing up reading the Alex Rider series while I wait for the next Maximum ride book to come out, but I only have two books left so I'll need another series. Any recommendations? **

**THE SECOND ONE THAT IS ABOUT THE EARTHQUAKE Whoa. I'm glad everyone's okay and it's a good thing that it sounds like it could be a lot worse. I dub us the disaster duo of fanfiction.**

**Have you ever seen Falling Skies? It's REALLY good, but I haven't seen all of the episodes because I only started watching the last episode or two of the marathon before the season finale and I watched some online after that. It's insanely awesome. Do you like school? I used to, but I hate it now. Kids think I'm weird and my school is like a little prison for hillbilly kids. (That's an odd way of putting it, but it's how it popped into my head.) And teachers call us by our last names and treat us like we're in the army instead of the _ grade. (Sorry, I don't know who all reads this so I'm not posting my grade.)**

**Chapter 21**

…

…

…

The sky was blue

**That's all I've got! I am seriously stuck on what to write. Anyone with ANY ideas please review or PM me. I'm desperate!**


	22. Alternate Chapter 20 or Something

**I have decided that to make up for what I did on chapter 21 I'll post an alternate version that I wrote, but decided it was too short while I work on chapter 22.**

**Chapter 20**

"Hey Jessie," Wednesday said calmly. "Who all is home?"

"Josh is," she said.

"JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!" Wednesday shrieked as she ran towards the house. "JESSIE'S DATING A HE DEMON WHO WAS TRYING TO HIT US WITH A BASEBALL BAT!" Josh came tearing out of the house before Wednesday had even reached the front door.

"You're," he said pointing at Jessie, "dating- dating _that_." He pointed at Drake who glared at him.

"Yeah," Jessie said. "You knew I was dating."

"Yeah, but not some weirdo who pours soda on computers, puts charcoal in chocolate milk, and tries to hit people with a baseball bat if they hit him with water balloons," Sean said.

"He likes a laugh," Jessie said defensively.

"He threatened to _kill_ us," Greg said.

"You did pelt him with water balloons," Jessie said.

"How does that make it right?" Wednesday cried.

"Everybody, just come inside," Jessie said. "We can talk this over and get Drake dried off."

So the eight of them and Drake followed her like she was a mother duck, into the house, into the kitchen and obediently sat at the table while she went and got a towel for Drake.

"Status report," she said once she slipped into a seat.

"I'm still wet," Drake said.

"We don't want to sit by him," Sean and Greg said together, edging their chairs away from him.

"He's glaring at me," Lola said.

"An ant just bit my thumb," Dustin said.

"He's kicking me!" said Josh.

"I wanna cookie!"

"Wednesday!"

"Sorry."

"Okay," Jessie said. "After that… interesting news, let's get down to business." She turned to her siblings. "He's my boyfriend so you can't pelt him with water balloons." She turned to Drake. "They're my siblings so you can't threaten to kill them, only I can do that." Then she noticed Wednesday munching on something. "Where did you get the cookie?"

"I will never tell!" she said before dashing upstairs.

CBTD

"Hey guys," Tyler said as he walked into the house. Wednesday, Josh, Sean, Greg, and someone he didn't know sat on the floor playing Monopoly while Jessie supervised from the couch. "Who's you're friend?"

"This is Jessie's boyfriend and Lola and Dustin's cousin. He poured soda on their computer, put charcoal in Lola's chocolate milk, and sprayed us with a water hose so we pelted him with water balloons and ran over here because he was threatening to kill us and he had a baseball bat, but then it turned out that he's Jessie's boyfriend so he didn't kill us and Jessie is making us try to get along," Wednesday said.

"Okay then," Tyler said. It was usually best if he didn't get involved in these things.

"Ha!" Wednesday said as Drake's shoe piece landed on a place she had already bought. "Pay up!" Drake unhappily forked over the fake money which Wednesday quickly counted and added to her stack.

Drake left after they finished playing Monopoly and the Swords sat down to have dinner. "So other than meet Jessie's boyfriend, what did you guys do today?" Tyler asked as he began cutting his food.

"We went swimming," Greg contributed.

"Cool," Tyler said.

"The magic unicorn gave me a cookie!" Wednesday cheered. Tyler looked at her oddly.

"Huh?"

"I have already divulged too much information," she cried before sticking the Monopoly box over her head.


	23. The BakerSword Circus

**THANK YOU SO MUCH! I HAVE INSPIRATION!**

**Lola Ride: NEVER SAY THAT! UNICORNS ****ARE ****REAL! **_**THEY ARE, THEY ARE, THEY ARE!**_** XD You're welcome. In class on Friday we watched a reenactment of what happened on Flight 93 and it had some of the sounds and stuff that the black box had recorded and the people who were on the flight's family's talking and it was terrible. It made me so sad and I felt like hitting these stupid kids in my class who were making jokes about it.**

**Hey, have you ever watched MattyBRaps on youtube? It's awesome and he's adorable.**

**Chapter 22**

As Mike and Jake came down the stairs in there house they could hear their dad on the phone.

"Hey, guys," Tom said to his sons after he hung up. "Bud and Nora are going to come down stay for a week. And I imagine they'll want to meet the infamous Sword family."

"Sweet," Jake said and the two brothers grinned at each other. "When are they coming?"

"Tomorrow morning," Tom said. "They'll be here around breakfast."

"Sweet," Mike said, echoing his brother with a grin. "I'm going to go tell Wednesday!"

Kate laughed as her son ran towards the Swords house. "He's got a crush on her," she said. Tom nodded.

"Whether he knows it or not, he's selling her his heart one piece at a time," he agreed. Jake began backing away slowly.

"Creepy parent talk," he said before dashing out the door. The Baker parents laughed as their teenage son disappeared after his younger brother.

CBTD

Music was playing loudly when the two Bakers entered the ride house. They had long sense given up knocking; Tyler said they might as well have been part of the family. The first thing they saw were several of the Sword kids jumping up and down, dancing.

"What are you doing?" Jake shouted over the music.

"Dancing," Penny said as she bounded over to them. "We had CAAAAAKE and now everyone's on a sugar rush!"

The two Baker boys glanced at each other before Mike cracked a grin, fished a large sucker out of his pocket, jammed it into his mouth, and melted into the crowd of dancing Swords. Jake rolled his eyes then spent the next half hour trying to find Mike.

"What happened to him?" Henry asked as Jake dragged Mike home. After a sucker and a slice of cake Mike had gotten a sugar rush and when he crashed he had all, but passed out. Jake had done the only thing he could; duck taped him to a skateboard, tied a rope to his feet, and brought him home. Okay, so _maybe _that wasn't the best choice, but it sure as heck was fun.

"Do the world a favor," Jake said as he untied Mike's feet. "Never give the Swords cake."

CBTD

"Hey, kids," Bud called as he and Nora entered the Baker's house. The house seemed to shake as the Bakers and Swords thundered down the stairs. A look of panic crossed Bud's face. "Nora, honey, we've gotta get out of here. They've multiplied!"

"Bud, sweetie," Nora said gently. "Calm down. I only have eleven siblings. The rest are their friends, the Swords." Bud's panic lessened slightly.

"You've got to warn me before something like this," he said. "I nearly had a heart attack!"

"We told you that they had made friends with a big family," Tom said to his son in law.

"Yeah," Bud said. "I didn't really grasp that there would be this many. How many of them are there anyways?" The Swords kids started a call off.

"We're Anna and Suzy, we're seven and the thirteenth and fourteenth youngest."

"Wednesday, nine."

"Penny, ten."

"Greg, eleven."

"Sean, twelve."

"Jackson and Andrew, thirteen."

"Josh, fourteen."

"Jessie, sixteen."

"Hannah, seventeen. Tyler, Lindsey, and Billy are at work."

"Wow," Bud said. Then he grinned. "So let's say one of you kids got married. Then I would have twenty three brother and sister in-laws." Tom and Kate chuckled.

"We better have several more years before that happens," Tom said, looking pointedly at the kids who giggled nervously.

Half an hour later, the Bakers yard very much resembled a circus. Wednesday, Mike, and Jake had employed Bud to help them set up a zip line running from two large oak trees and were now zipping around, cheering like sugar high five year olds presented with a chocolate cake. Suzy, Anna, Nigel, and Kyle were dangling out of a tree pelting anyone within range with water balloons filled with pink lemonade Koolaid. Henry and Charlie were passing a pair of someone's underwear back and forth like monkey in the middle as they ran across the yard. Not knowing whose it was, Lindsey, Hannah, Jessica, and Kim chased after them, trying to help whoever they belonged to or possibly themselves. Mark had tripped and spilt his box of crickets down Lorraine's shirt and Sarah was helping try to get them out without out killing too many. Hannah, Jessie, Sean, and Greg were attempting to learn to juggle (and failing miserably at it). Penny weaving in and out of the siblings doing cartwheels. And of course, Nora, Tome, and Kate sat on the ground laughing at them all.

Tyler's car pulled into the Bakers driveway with Tyler, Lindsey, and Billy inside, intending to tell their siblings to come on home and that supper would be ready soon. Tyler knocked on the door, but after receiving no answer after several seconds he let himself in. Seeing no one, the oldest Sword headed towards the backyard. His eyes widened and he turned on his heel.

"Billy, Lindsey, get back in the car!" he shouted.

**I always love the Swords randomness. :D Don't blame me if you don't like the chapter, I was hyper… Well I'm ALWAYS hyper so technically you can't EVER blame me if you can't blame me for being hyper. YAY!**


	24. LET'S TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

**EVERYONE! No authors note this time. Sorry, I had a big, long, beautiful AN typed out and… my brother deleted it and I couldn't get it right again. Sorry.**

**I have a feeling there was something a forgot to do… Oh well.**

**Lola Ride: You know how I said my school reminds me of a prison a while ago? As in in chapter 21? Well it reminds me of a prison even more now. We ran a half mile in short shorts and tee shirts in fifty degree weather while it was raining. So needless to say, IT SUCKED.**

**Chapter 24**

"Ah-ah-ACHEW!" Wednesday sneezed violently from where she was curled up on the air mattress. Not even flinching at the snot, Billy help a tissue to her face and his sister blew her nose.

"Are you guys sure you can handle everything?" Tyler asked as he frantically looked around for his left shoe. "I could probably call in sick and help out." Hannah stubbornly shook her head and handed Tyler his shoe which he took gratefully before rushing out the door to work.

Six of the younger Sword kids had gotten sick overnight, thus interrupting the entire household. Wednesday, Anna, Suzy, Sean, Andrew, and Josh were down with fevers, coughs, sneezes, and the occasional vomiting and they were all piled up on the couch and an air mattress in the living room floor to make it easier to keep an eye on all of them. Billy, Hannah, and Jessie were staying home all day to look after them while everyone else was being sent over to the Bakers to hopefully keep them from getting sick. Lindsey and Tyler couldn't afford to take time off of work.

"Jessie," Suzy moaned soon after Tyler was out the door. "It's too cold!"

"Okay, sweetie," Jessie said patiently. "I'll go get you another blanket." Suzy's fever was low enough for another blanket to be okay.

"No!" Anna objected from where she was flopped out next to her twin. "It's too hot!"

"Jessie, go get Suzy another blanket, but a light one. Hannah, go get Anna a cold washcloth to cool her down," Billy took charge.

"I think I'm going to hurl," Josh moaned. Quickly, Billy grabbed one of the bowls that was sitting around the room, held it underneath Josh's chin, and pulled Josh up into a slouching position. All of this happened just quickly enough for Josh to empty the few contents of his stomach into the bowl. Billy grimaced at the smell, but said nothing once his brother stopped vomiting and he gently let him lie back down, wiped his mouth, and went to rinse out the bowl just in case it needed to be used again.

CBTD

"They any better?" Tyler asked when he came home and saw the ailing Swords kids all sleeping.

"Yeah," Billy responded quietly, not wanting to wake them. "I think it's just a twenty four hour thing. Suzy and Anna's fevers broke about an hour ago and the others are simmering."

"That's good," Tyler said as he took off his shoes by the door with the other thirteen pairs that were there. "You guys did good today. Now go get some rest, you look exhausted." Wednesday's head moved slightly and she mumbled something.

"What's that, Winds?" Tyler asked, slightly louder that he had been talking before so Wednesday would be able to hear the conversation better.

"Well," Wednesday mumbled. "Good isn't grammatically correct."

Tyler smiled slightly and pulled the blanket Wednesday was underneath up to her chin. "Of course, sweetie," he managed to say seriously. "I don't know what I was thinking."

CBTD

Three days later everyone was back at 100% and running around like they hadn't been puking into buckets a few days before. Suzy, Anna, Nigel, and Kyle made a lemonade stand and spent the day doing that. At the end of the day they went over to the Bakers to count their earnings, about a third of which was from the swords and Bakers. But they had made about twenty dollars which would be wisely invested in candy, of course.

"MIKE, MIKE, MICHAEL, MIKEY BOY!" Wednesday yelled as she walked into Mike's room.

"What?" he asked as he fell from the ceiling and onto the bed.

"Hi," Wednesday said as she flopped down on the bed beside him. Mike shook his head.

"Oh, Wednesday," Jake said, shaking his head as well.

"WHEN DID YOU GET HERE?" Wednesday shrieked.

"Like…," Jake paused to count a couple of seconds on his fingers. "Thirty seconds ago."

"Well, give me some warning next time!" Wednesday exclaimed. "I could have died! How would you have felt if I had fallen over, had a heart attack, and died on your little brother's bedroom floor? Not only would you have killed me, but you would have traumatized poor Mike as well. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?"

"Er… sorry?" Jake offered up weakly.

"Apology accepted," Wednesday responded cheerfully. "So what do you guys want to do today?"

Suddenly, a small child hit the window, face crinkling. "LETS TAKE OVER THE WORLD!" he shouted before dropping to the ground. Mike and Jake jumped in fright, but Wednesday lept to her fee with excitement.

"Yes!" she declared. "That's exactly what we'll do!"

"Wait on second," Jake said. "I walk into the room, and it scares the bajeebers out of you, but that had no effect whatsoever?" Wednesday shrugged.

"I'm a special person," she said before beginning to pace thoughtfully. "I would, obviously, be queen of the world and the rest of the Swords and the Bakers can be all the little princesses and princes!"

"Okay," Jake said with a grin, deciding to humor her. "Let's go take over the world."

And so they did.

**I didn't plan this until I was about half way through writing the chapter, but that was the end! Look for the sequel soon. Any ideas, send 'em to me and I'll see about putting them in.**

**I LOVE YOU ALL!**


	25. Question!

**Before anyone starts sending me hurtful reviews and PMs about this not being a chapter, and me breaking the rules, I will be taking this down after a few days. It's just addressing what the readers of this story would like me to do next.**

**Lola Ride: That's okay. I'm not really trying to be negative, the stories that I posted on their all kind of touched me so I shared them, hoping that it could touch someone else or even show someone how much their actions can hurt someone. And as for the last story, the more people who know about the illness, the more people who just might grow up to be a doctor, and just might find a way to cure it. But I agree that more people do need to know Jesus. **

**And just because there is bad stuff in the world, doesn't mean you have to let it consume you. Example, I've been in the public school system since I was two, I know there are kids in schools who do get in trouble, but I know to surrond myself with good people who won't get me mixed up in stuff like that. Reposting the stories is just a way of spreading the fact that there is bad in the world, but we can overcome it. **

**And please, if anyone else reads this then don't start attacking my beliefs. I am Christian and proud, but if someone isn't I don't press my beliefs onto them. One of my best friends is Muslim and she's probably one of the nicest people I know.**

**Onto the part for everyone. I'm a little bit stuck on what the next story should be so should I…**

**A Write something for NCIS. (I'm already working on three)**

**B Write something for Supernatural.**

**C Write one of the other Sword kids thoughts and experiances through this.**

**D Think of something for this.**

**E Write something for Fablehaven. ( I haven't read any of these in a long time, but I really liked them)**

**F One of my readers could send me an idea**

**G Other (Review or PM me)**

**I'm going to take this down once I start working on the next thing.**

**Thanks, Miggy.**


	26. Sneak Peak

**Lola Ride: CDF? What does this stand for? I'm confuzzled! **

**Yeah, I've known you for nine months (I really didn't know it had been that long until I went back through and looked at your first review to this story) so I'm pretty comfortable talking about this with you, but some other people might have read this and been offended or something. **

**And as I was looking through the reviews I saw the one where you asked me if I was out of school and told me that you were home schooled, and I kind of think that's part of the reason you feel so strongly about what we've been discussing, because you haven't been exposed to as many as the things that you could have been. And to be honest, I'm jealous. **

**I was kind of reminising today and I started thinking, everday I walk down the same hallway that a teenager was lead out of in handcuffs a year ago. Same hallways kids huddled in during the tornadoes. Same hallways that a lot of other stuff that I don't really want to know happens in. And I'm letting that influence me too much. So when I came back from gym I walked around the school, hummed "We're Off to See the Wizard", hugged my best friends, and just kind of enjoyed everything a bit more. Now I'm sort of laughing at myself, having a moment carrying a gym bag full of sweaty gym clothes and stepping over a bunch of crushed eggs, but I was. So then I kind of agreed, there is too much negative on my profile, so I'm going to leave the stories up, but try to balance it out with more positive stories. If you have any, send 'em in. **

**Also on the one where we talked about what I guessed what you looked like, what do you think I look like? How old? Tall, short, fat, thin, pale, tan? And like you did before you read the little physical desription of me on my profile, if you read it. **

**IT SNOWED HERE! But it didn't stick. I love winter! The only part I don't like about it is that my lips get chappe and when I play my saxophone they bleed and it hurts. Ohsies wellsies.**

**I should check them out… Have you ever heard of David Fanning? He came to my school and he's really good, but hardly anyone has ever heard of him. He's better live than he is in videos and stuff. This is a really long authors notey thing. 430 something words.**

**EVERYONE If this is crap, I really can't help it. I wrote this while I was at home from school, recovering from a migraine.**

**Sneak Peak of Next Story Which Will Probably Be Up Before Christmas.**

**Warning so I won't offend anyone: This features Christmas. I'm not trying to offend anyone and I won't put to much religious stuff in, but it's the season, I can't help but write about it. **

"It's my turn," Wednesday declared. The Sword family was gathered around a little cardboard box with numbered flaps, an Advent calendar. Every year, the Swords' cousins would send them an Advent calendar which usually arrived around the first of December. Tyler knew that this Christmas was special; it was their first Christmas together since their parents had died.

Using one hand to hold the box up, Wednesday carefully popped the properly dated flap of and pulled out the little piece of candy. Their cousins lived in Germany, so the calendar had some extra novelty with the little foreign candies.

It was a not even two weeks until Christmas and the Swords were just now putting up their Christmas tree. They had been using the same artificial tree since the twins were born, and by some small miracle the tree had survived the fire that had taken most everything else from the family. The older kids pulled down plastic tubs of decorations and ornaments while Tyler and Billy, with some difficulty, got the tree down from the attic.

Once the tree was set up they began putting the ornaments on. The tree was decorated in such a crowded, messy, childish, _perfect _way that you could only get in a family of fourteen. The angel was left sitting on the coffee stand, not to be put up until Christmas Eve.

The sound of bare feet running came down the stairs and two little bodies flung themselves at the window. "It's snowing!" Anna declared with glee. The twins rounded on their brother.

"Can we go out?" they asked.

"How about this?" Tyler proposed. "You guys run up the stairs and down the hallway, screaming at the top of your lungs that it's snowing and we're all going to go outside and make snow cream and then run into your room and get bundled up while I get some warm clothes on and get the stuff to make the snow cream?"

The two little girls nodded, happily agreeing to the plan and the dashed back up the stairs, shouting all the way. Tyler laughed quietly to himself as he went to the kitchen for milk, sugar, a gigantic bowl, spoons, and vanilla.

**A.N. I have never actually had snow cream before, as it rarely snows enough here in the southern US. I just remembered the recipe from a book I read three years ago.**

"Everybody ready?" Tyler asked. Counting him, twelve of the fourteen Sword kids were in the living room.

"Don't leave us," Jackson shouted from the top of the stairs where he and Andrew shoving their feet in their boots. He yanked his arms back as he tightened the laces, but accidently caught Andrew in the shoulder, sending him tumbling backwards. Andrew latched onto his twin, and they both went down the stairs, laughing when they finally stopped at the bottom.

They all laughed at the two clumsy boys before they headed out to enjoy the cold weather.


End file.
